Pole, Win, Crown: Kunimitsu's Honda Prelude-GT Takes the Super GT Title at Motegi
Honda's new Prelude-GT is a Super GT champion in its first season: Naoki Yamamoto and Tadasuke Makino won Sunday's Motegi GT 250km Grand Final from pole for Stanley Team Kunimitsu, leading 42 of 53 laps to seal the GT500 title, while the defending champions' Toyota retired eight laps from the flag after collision damage. In GT300, the championship went to Nissan — João Paulo de Oliveira and Iori Kimura brought the No. 56 Kondo Racing GT-R home fourth from 17th on the grid to take the crown.
Kunimitsu Controlled the Day That Mattered
The No. 100 Stanley Honda started Sunday on pole, having taken the championship lead for the first time all season in Saturday's opening race. Yamamoto withstood early pressure from the No. 36 TOM'S Toyota, the cars pitted together, and Makino was untroubled from there, crossing the line 1.7 seconds ahead of the No. 17 Real Racing Honda of Koudai Tsukakoshi and Yuto Nomura to complete a Honda 1-2. It is Yamamoto and Makino's third win of the season, Honda's first GT500 championship since 2020 — the year this same driver pairing last won it — and Team Kunimitsu's first title since the passing of founder Kunimitsu Takahashi in 2022. For Yamamoto, a third GT500 crown closes a comeback that ran through a career-threatening neck injury in 2023. The Prelude-GT's debut season ends with five Honda wins from the year's eight rounds, per RACER's season count.
The Champions' Defence Ended Against a Lamborghini
Sho Tsuboi and Kenta Yamashita arrived at Sunday needing to beat the Honda, and their race unravelled in traffic: the No. 36 au TOM'S GR Supra collided with the No. 88 JLOC Lamborghini as the field came to a Full Course Yellow, taking left-front damage that only worsened when Tsuboi and Sacha Fenestraz made contact at the 90-degree corner after the restart. Tsuboi retired the car to the garage after 45 laps — classified 13th, eight laps down — ending his bid for a record-breaking fifth GT500 championship. Behind the Hondas, the podium was settled in the stewards' room: the No. 39 SARD Toyota of Yuhi Sekiguchi and Fenestraz crossed the line third after climbing from 10th, but was disqualified post-race for a skid-block violation, promoting Saturday's winners — Kazuki Hiramine and Bertrand Baguette in the No. 12 Impul Nissan Z — to third in the official classification, ahead of the No. 38 Cerumo Toyota in fourth and the No. 14 ENEOS X PRIME Toyota in fifth. The No. 23 NISMO Nissan's 40-second post-race penalty dropped it to 11th, out of the points.
GT300: A Lamborghini Won the Race, a Nissan Won the War
The No. 88 Lamborghini that tangled with the TOM'S Toyota went on to win GT300: Daniil Kvyat passed Sven Müller's Seven x Seven Porsche with four laps to go to give JLOC its first class win since 2024. But the title belonged to the No. 56 Realize/Nissan Mechanic Challenge GT-R — de Oliveira and Kimura started 17th, survived the pressure, and finished fourth, enough for Kondo Racing's third GT300 championship and de Oliveira's third as a driver. The No. 11 Gainer Nissan Fairlady Z took third in class, Müller finished as championship runner-up, and Morio Nitta's bid for a storybook send-off with K-tunes Racing ended with a drive-through penalty for pit-lane speeding and a ninth-place finish. Manabu Orido also bowed out of Super GT today, finishing 25th in the apr Toyota GR86.
The Debut Car Did Its Job
Toyota's GR GT3 concept completed its world racing debut weekend exactly as planned: the No. 32 Rookie Racing entry completed its debut weekend on Sunday, finishing 24th, one lap down, after a drive-through penalty for pit-lane speeding — data gathered and the car home, ahead of homologation and a first full season in 2027. The season is over, the Prelude is a champion at the first attempt, and Nissan leaves Motegi with a GT300 title and Saturday's GT500 win. Yesterday's race report is here, and the weekend preview that set up this title fight is here.