Suzuka 1000 km

After a five-year hiatus, the event is scheduled to return in September 2025 as part of the SRO Intercontinental GT Challenge.

[3] On 4 March 2017, it was announced that the GT Association (GTA) and Stephane Ratel Organisation (SRO) would join forces to promote a new ten-hour endurance race for FIA-GT3 and JAF-GT300 (now GTA-GT300) sports cars, known as the Suzuka 10 Hours.

[9] The 2020 Suzuka 10 Hours, which had originally been scheduled for 23 August, was one of numerous motorsports events that were cancelled in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and the travel enacted in Japan during this time.

During the 2024 SRO press conference at Spa-Francorchamps, Stephane Ratel announced that the Suzuka 1000km will return the following September as part of the 2025 Intercontinental GT Challenge season.

[16] The event will allow entries from GT300 teams to use GTA-GT300 spec cars, after an agreement between SRO and the GT Association (GTA) was reached in late 2024.

Five other drivers – Daisuke Ito, Ryo Michigami, Naoki Nagasaka, Sébastien Philippe, and Juichi Wakisaka, have won the event three times overall.

Several past winners of the race have also won the 24 Hours of Le Mans, including Henri Pescarolo, Vern Schuppan, Masanori Sekiya, Stanley Dickens, Yannick Dalmas, Derek Warwick, JJ Lehto, André Lotterer, Benoît Tréluyer, Loïc Duval, and Kazuki Nakajima.

The most successful Japanese marques are Honda and Toyota, who have each won the race eight times overall, just ahead of Nissan with seven victories.

Fireworks at the 2014 race