The third round of the 2025 Super GT series was held at Sepang International Circuit (Malaysia) and a total of five CIVIC TYPE R-GT cars participated in the season’s sole overseas round making its first return to Malaysia since 2013 and to Thailand since 2019.

Although it had done a winter test at Sepang in last January, the CIVIC TYPE R-GT had never run a real race there before. The circuit, having a number of high-speed corners as well as some middle/low-speed swerving turns, requires a specific approach in dealing with the track surface condition and is fundamentally different from Japanese domestic circuits, namely the balance between downforce and drag for one.

The success weights imposed on each entrant at Sepang were as follows: 38kg for #100 STANLEY CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Naoki Yamamoto/Tadasuke Makino), 12kg for #8 ARTA MUGEN CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Tomoki Nojiri/Nobuharu Matsushita), 6kg for #17 Astemo CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Koudai Tsukakoshi/Syun Koide), 4kg for #64 Modulo CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Takuya Izawa/Riki Okusa) and 0kg for #16 ARTA MUGEN CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Hiroki Otsu/Ren Sato).

Considering the hot weather in Malaysia, an irregular time table was introduced for the weekend, such as the official qualifying sessions taking place late afternoon on 27 (Fri) when the temperature was lower, and the same measure was applied to the race on 28 (Sat).

The first free practice session on 26 (Thu) was started at 16:30 p.m., the same time as for the race on Saturday. The #100 car (Makino) carryied the heaviest success weight among the CIVIC TYPE R-GT squad but marked a 1’51.072” - the fastest time in the field. The #100 car had once marked the overall best time in the last winter test (1’48.996”), which was over 2 secs quicker than this time, demonstrating the difficulty of the Sepang heat, and how contingent the pace was upon ambient/road surface temperatures. Nevertheless, it seemed relatively encouraging that the CIVIC TYPE R-GT might suit the characteristics of the track well.

On June 27 (Fri) at 10:30 a.m., the second free practice session was held for 1 hour under the clear sky, and #8 car (Nojiri) managed to score the 4th fastest time (1’52.489”) amid severe track conditions where the temperatures of both ambient and road surface soared. Other CIVIC TYPE R-GT runners closed the session without making significant progress in the lap time.

A half day later from the official practice session, the 10-minute Q1 session was started at 17:04 p.m. The ambient and road surface temperatures dropped as the sun gave way to an overcast sky, and the #17 car (Tsukakoshi), #64 car (Okusa) and #8 car (Matsushita) marked the 2nd, 3rd and 6th fastest times respectively, and advanced to the Q2 session.

When each runner set out for the warm up, the #39 GR Supra suffered trouble and came to a stop at the trackside and the session was immediately suspended by the red flag. The 10-minute Q2 session was resumed with a 7’30” run to go, and a total of nine cars but #39 started afresh and went into the time attack. As a result, #8 car (Nojiri) secured the 2nd grid, #64 car (Izawa) 3rd and #17 car (Koide) 7th to start the race next day.

As for the GT300 class, Yuto Nomura, a debutant to the GT category from Honda’s training program, took part in the Q2 session and brought #18 UPGARAGE AMG GT3 to the pole position. Incidentally, the #18 car went on to win its maiden victory next day.

A tropical squall hit the circuit early in the morning on 28 (Sat), but the track dried quickly as the sun emerged. In the afternoon, thin clouds veiled the sky with ambient and road surface temperatures at 33℃ and 42℃ when the race was green-flagged at 16:30 p.m.

The #19 GR Supra launched from pole position and took the holeshot into Turn-1, and the #8 car (Matsushita) and #64 car (Okusa) followed immediately behind. The #17 car (Koide), #100 car (Yamamoto) and #16 car (Otsu) successfully made up a position each in the opening lap.

The #8 car (Matsushita), foreseeing that the current pace of #19 car was not going to last long, shrewdly readied for the chance to pounce on it. On Lap-9 at Turn-9, the #8 car sneaked inside GR Supra and robbed of its leading position.

In the meantime, #64 (Okusa) from 3rd on the grid had a hard time keeping up with the pace and lost positions on Lap-7, 9 and 10, dropping down to 6th immediately behind #17 car (Koide).

The #8 car (Matsushita) now leading the race came under a threat from #37 GR Supra, but on Lap-21, it headed for the pit lane for the prescheduled pit works and driver change.

The #8 car in the hand of Nojiri was running forefront among the early stoppers and 7th on the actual track order. At this particular phase of the race, the ARTA MUGEN camp had estimated that they would possibly capture the top position from the #37 car when it was called into the pit. However, the #37 car stayed on the track way longer than anybody’s assumption, and was finally pitted as late as on Lap-32, which was the longest stint made by a GT500 entrant in the race. This enabled #37 to take the least possible refuelling time, and thus to rejoin the track in front of #8 car. Nojiri resolutely tried to catch #37 car running on yet-to-be heated tyres and went side-by-side at Turn-14 on Lap-33, but his effort did not pay off. The #37 car soon resumed its pace and made a gap on fresh tyres whereas #8 car (Nojiri), to the contrary, was stagnated by tyre wear and had to settle in the 2nd place, its first podium finish so far in the season, after the 55-lap hard work.

The #100 car (Makino) showed a fierce catch up pace in the later half of the race but accidentally tangled with the #38 GR Supra on Lap-27 while fighting for the 5th place, and was given 10-sec time penalty for it. Makino pushed even harder thereafter to make up for the penalty, and robbed #17 car (Tsukakoshi) of its 5th place on Lap-48, #19 car on Lap-50 and #12 Z on Lap-54, and crossed the control line in 3rd, however, the final result in balance with the10-sec penalty concluded 6th place to the #100 car.

The #17 car advanced to 4th with the #100 car’s penalty, #64 car finished 10th and #16 car 12th, a total of four CIVIC TYPE R-GT cars earned each share of series point.

GT500 Race Result

GT500 Team Ranking