33 cars and IGTC title rivals now confirmed for Suzuka 1000km

This year’s Suzuka 1000km will feature 33 cars following confirmation of the event’s entry list with a little under one month to go.

After a six-year hiatus, the 49th Summer Endurance Race will also stage Round 4 of 2025’s Intercontinental GT Challenge campaign on September 12-14. Its initial 30-car list was first revealed – albeit without driver combinations and classes – on July 18 before further entries were officially lodged before August 4’s deadline.

Now, SRO Motorsports Group can reveal the driver roster also taking part.

Of most significance are, perhaps, BMW’s Augusto Farfus and Kelvin van der Linde who line up on opposite sides of WRT’s garage. Two points separate them at the top of IGTC’s standings ahead of an event that Van der Linde won with WRT and Audi in 2019 despite Farfus clinching pole for BMW.

The Belgian squad’s two factory M4s were not part of the list originally issued in July. The latest version also includes the addition of two Japan Cup regulars: K-Tunes’ Ferrari and Runup Sports’ Nissan.

The one withdrawal is Absolute Corse’s #19 Lamborghini, bringing the total number of marques to eight. Four of those – BMW, Ferrari, Mercedes-AMG and Porsche – are all eligible to score IGTC manufacturers’ and drivers’ championship points. Their cars collectively comprise 26 of the 33 entries.

Meanwhile, the race’s overall winners are most likely to come from one of the 11 Pro class combinations.

Amongst them are three standout Porsche crews, each of which will race a special heritage livery. Stuttgart’s current best hope for IGTC drivers’ title success, Alessio Picariello, shares the homage to Kremer Racing’s 1981 Suzuka 1000km winner with Bastian Buus and Laurin Heinrich, while Klaus Bachler, Dorian Boccolacci and Patric Niederhauser pilot the iconic Pink Pig. The NewMan design, made famous at Le Mans, is entrusted to Kevin Estre, Patrick Pilet and Laurens Vanthoor.

GMR, which won the first IGTC-counting Summer Endurance Race in 2018, returns to spearhead Mercedes-AMG’s effort along with Craft-Bamboo and Goodsmile’s all-Japanese line-up, while Ferrari’s best hope appears to be either the Maezawa Racing entry featuring factory driver Thomas Neubauer or Harmony’s 296 driven by Intercontinental race winner Dennis Marschall.

Elsewhere, JMR’s Corvettes will not contend for Intercontinental points. However, its Pro crew comprising Chevrolet works drivers Alexander Sims and Nicky Catsburg plus IndyCar star and multiple Supercars champion Scott McLaughlin is expected to be an outright victory contender. The latter, whose Penske IndyCar also uses GM power, will be making his first IGTC start since Bathurst 2018.

Nissan also has a Pro crew at its disposal courtesy of Team Handwork Challenge who have recruited Super GT regulars Daiki Sasaki, Iori Kimura and Atsushi Miyake.

Other notable drivers include 2018 Suzuka winner Raffaele Marciello who joins Van der Linde and reigning IGTC champion Charles Weerts in WRT’s #32 M4 GT3 Evo, Super Formula title contender Kakunoshin Ohta shares Craft-Bamboo’s lead entry with Maximilian Götz and Ralf Aron, and Formula 1 race winner Giancarlo Fisichella pilots LM Corsa’s Ferrari with GT World Challenge Asia powered by AWS regulars Kei Nakanishi and Shigekazu Wakisaka.

All five of IGTC’s registered Independent Cup drivers – Kenny Habul, Ralf Bohn, Antares Au, Jonathan Hui and Adrian D’Silva – are also contesting the event. Suzuka will welcome the class’ largest entry since Intercontinental’s maiden season in 2016.

Provisionally, the Bronze class accounts for the greatest number of entries with 12, one more than Pro. Six will contest Pro-Am, Silver has three, and Am one.

Tickets for the event, which also features this year’s Japan Cup finale, are available now at suzukacircuit.jp.

Provisional Suzuka 1000km timetable

Friday 12 September

09:40 – 10:40: Paid Test Session 1

12:00 – 13:00: Paid Test Session 2

17:45 – 19:15: Night Practice

Saturday 13 September

10:45 – 12:15: Pre-Qualifying

17:05 – 17:20: Qualifying 1

17:27 – 17:42: Qualifying 2

17:50 – 18:05: Qualifying 3

Sunday 14 September

12:50 – 19:20: Suzuka 1000km