In her first ever endurance race, Riona Tomishita took top honours in the ST-2 class at the opening round of the 2025 Super Taikyu season at Mobility Resort Motegi. 2023 TCR Japan Champion, Anna Inotsume, on her ST-X debut saw a podium fall out of reach as her #101 Hitotsuyama Racing Audi hit trouble on the last lap.
The first round of the 2025 Super Taikyu season at Mobility Resort Motegi was divided into two 4 hour-long races, where the first one was composed of four classes, ST-Z, ST-4, ST-5F and ST-5R, which was won overall by the #52 Saitama Green Brave Toyota Supra (Yamazaki, Yoshida, Hattori, Nonaka). In the same race, Marie Iwaoka finished fifth in the ST-5R class for the #89 Murakami Motors Mazda.
Whilst the final race of the weekend saw the former two classes return, along with the rest of the categories that make up the Super Taikyu entry list, ranging from FIA GT3 (known as ST-X in the series), to cars that are within 1,500cc and 2,500cc (ST-4).
In the first weekend of the season, two female drivers competed in two different classes. In ST-X, 2023 TCR Japan champion Anna Inotsume competed for #101 Hitotsuyama Racing alongside James Pull, Sota Ogawa and Kenji Suzuki. Meanwhile in ST-2, Kyojo Cup racer Riona Tomishita made her debut in endurance races for #225 KTMS alongside Tokiya Suzuki and Hibiki Taira.
On Sunday, the #101 Hitotsuyama Racing Audi started third and would be driven by Inotsume for the opening hour of the race, while the #225 KTMS Toyota started sixth in class and would be driven by Suzuki in the opening part of the race.
As the #666 Seven x Seven Porsche lead the start of the race, Inotsume initially held on to third but fell to fourth as the first lap came to a close, while Suzuki held on to sixth in what was a trouble-free start for the Toyota junior.
With lapped cars playing a factor early in the race, Inotsume was attacking the #31 apr Lexus (Nagai, Gamou, Kobayashi, Saga) for third place, which she would get not long after, returning up in the podium places before pitting near the end of the first hour, giving the car to Sota Ogawa for the second stint.
Meanwhile, the #225 KTMS Toyota of Suzuki was up to fourth and chasing the #743 Honda R&D Challenge of Akira Bitoh, passing it before pitting and giving the car to Riona Tomishita, who returned to the track in fourth position.
At the front of the ST-2 class, the #95 Team Spoon Civic, who had been battling for the lead with the #72 Nihon Automobile College Honda, started to suffer from technical issues and thus pulled into the garage to fix the problems, which meant the #225 KTMS of Tomishita retained fourth after being passed by the #743 Honda R&D Challenge car earlier in the stint.
As the race neared the halfway mark, Ogawa ran as high as first before pitting with 2 hours and 11 minutes left on the clock, leaving the car to Kenji Suzuki, and just 11 minutes later, the only Full Course Yellow of the race was displayed, as the #18 Asano Racing Service Toyota came to a halt in turn two and was towed back to the garage.
With the FCY period ending a few laps later, the #25 Team ZeroOne (ST-Z) and the #60 Zenyaku With Team G/Motion (ST-4) pulled into the garage as they also encountered technical issues. Not long after, Tomishita ended her 30-lap stint by pitting and leaving driving duties to Super Formula racer Hibiki Taira.
Taira soon got past the #743 Honda R&D Challenge to get back into third place and began hunting down the #72 Nihon Automobile College Honda and the #13 Endless Sports Toyota, which were fighting for top honours in class.
Near the end of Kenji Suzuki's stint, the #101 Hitotsuyama fell to fourth with less than an hour left and not long after, the final driver change for the Audi occurred, with James Pull entering the car for the last hour of the race as they aimed for a podium finish.
Behind them, the #225 KTMS of Hibiki Taira overcut the #72 Nihon Automobile College Honda for second and pitted with around 30 minutes left and completing the final driver change of the race, as Tokiya Suzuki took over and began catching up to the #13 Endless Sports Toyota.
With the #13 Endless Sports Toyota pitting not long after, Suzuki caught up to Hitoshi Okada and passed him around the outside of turn three with two laps left to take the lead in ST-2.
As Suzuki made his move on Okada, the Hitotsuyama Racing Audi of James Pull had just gotten back to third place, overtaking Rikuto Kobayashi in the closing stages. However, his hard work came undone as his car grinded to a halt on the final lap coming up to the esses and was forced to retire.
In the end, the #666 Seven x Seven Racing Porsche remained unchallenged as they scored their maiden win in the series ahead of the #23 TKRI Mercedes and the #31 apr Lexus, which rounded out the ST-X podium.
Behind them, the #52 Saitama Green Brave Toyota completed a clean sweep in ST-Z as they won both races, while the #2 K's Frontier KTM Cars won the ST-1 class after leading from start to finish from the #47 D'Station Racing Porsche.
The #225 KTMS Toyota crew of Suzuki, Tomishita and Taira held on to first as they finished nearly two seconds ahead of the #13 Endless Sports Toyota, while the #39 Tracy Sports with Delta won in ST-3 and the #884 SHADE Racing Toyota won in ST-4 after a hard-fought battle for the lead.
The season-opening round of the 2025 Super Taikyu season proved to be a promising one for Riona Tomishita, who enters Kyojo Cup with a boost in confidence following her debut win in ST-2, while Anna Inotsume will be looking to rebound from the last-lap heartbreak in the next round at Suzuka on April 26–27.
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