Hitotsuyama Racing participated in the ST-X class of the ENEOS Super Taikyu Series 2025 Empowered by BRIDGESTONE Round 1 "Motegi Super Taikyu 4 Hours Race" held at Mobility Resort Motegi in Tochigi Prefecture on March 23rd, 2025, the opening race of the 2025 season. In this opening race of the season, the #101 Audi R8 LMS GT3 competed in the ST-X class. With seven laps remaining, the team moved up to third place, within reach of the podium, but ran out of gas on the final lap and was unable to finish, resulting in a disappointing miss out on the podium.

They will be taking on the ST-X class for the first time in four years. Their lineup includes Kenji Suzuki, who has long awaited to step up to the ST-X class, as the A driver. Suzuki is a gentleman driver who made his race debut in the TCR Japan Series in 2020 and has been competing in the ST-Z class of the Super Taikyu series since 2022. B driver Sota Ogawa is a promising young driver born in 1999, who won the series championship at Formula Regional Japan in 2023. In 2024, he will be making a spot appearance in the Fuji 24 Hours race with the #21 Hitotsuyama Mercedes-AMG GT.

After serving as the C driver for the #21 Hitotsuyama Mercedes-AMG GT4 in the 2024 season, James Pull will step up to the ST-X class for 2025 due to his achievements. Anna Inotsume started racing at the age of 20, and in 2023 won the Saturday Series and Sunday Series double titles in the TCR Japan Series. From 2024, she will compete in Formula Regional Japan and Super Taikyu. Hitotsuyama Racing welcomed Inotsume to the team as a D driver as part of its efforts to support and develop the success of female drivers. In addition, Shintaro Kawabata, who has been challenging SUPER GT and Super Taikyu with Hitotsuyama Racing since 2020, will lead the team as manager and E driver.

Of these, at the opening round at Motegi, the four regular drivers from groups A to D took part in RACE 2 on the 23rd.

In qualifying, the team quaified the Hitotsuyama Racing #101 in third place.

The four-hour race began at 12:30 at Mobility Resort Motegi, where temperatures had exceeded 20°C just before noon, making it feel like early summer. Three driver changes were mandatory this time, and Inotsume, making his ST-X debut, took on the first stint.

Immediately after the start, Inotsume maintained third place and pushed towards the first corner, but was passed by the ace driver of the #23 TKRI Matsunaga Construction AMG GT3 along the way, dropping him to fourth place. The #23 TKRI Matsunaga Construction AMG GT3 then moved up to second place, while Inotsume closed in on the gentleman driver of the #31 DENSO LEXUS RC F GT3, who had dropped to third place, and a battle ensued for five laps. Then on the sixth lap, Inotsume passed the #31 DENSO LEXUS RC F GT3 to move up to third place. After that, he drove 20 laps at a steady pace of 1 minute 56 seconds to 57 seconds, before entering the pits for a driver change.

The team then refueled and changed both rear tires, and sent Ogawa out onto the course. As the fuel level decreased, the car's speed increased, and it closed in on the #23 TKRI Matsunaga Construction AMG GT3 in second place, occasionally recording times in the 1 minute 55 second range. Then, on lap 46, it moved up to second place, and then closed the gap to the #666 seven x seven PORSCHE GT3R, which was about 18 seconds ahead. On lap 53, it closed in on the #666 seven x seven PORSCHE GT3R, overtaking it at the final corner of the same lap, and finally took the lead.

After 55 laps, the baton was handed over to Suzuki. Suzuki returned to the track in third place and initially kept running at around 1 minute 59 seconds, but as the laps went by, his pace improved to 1 minute 58 seconds and he drove for about an hour. He played his role as A driver perfectly in his ST-X debut race.

After completing 85 laps, the team brought the car back to the pits, and in order to close the gap with the leading #31 DENSO LEXUS RC F GT3, the pit stop was for refuelling only, and Pull returned to the course without changing tyres. At this point, the gap to the #31 DENSO LEXUS RC F GT3 was around 13 seconds, but despite the tough situation with the tyres, Pull gradually closed the gap with his rival in third place. Then, with 10 laps remaining, he was closing in on the #31 DENSO LEXUS RC F GT3, and after continuing to push hard, he finally moved up to third place on the 115th lap.

The #101 Hitotsuyama Audi R8 LMS was on the brink of a podium finish in its debut race, but on the 121st and final lap, the car suddenly ran out of gas and stopped on the course. In Super Taikyu, a race cannot be completed unless the car receives the checkered flag, so the #101 Hitotsuyama Audi R8 LMS regretfully missed out on a spot on the podium just before the finish line.

Even so, Suzuki and Inotsume's driving was satisfactory for their debut race, and the speed of Ogawa and Pull was also confirmed at the Motegi race. Based on this experience, we will do our best to achieve good results at the next race in Suzuka, so please continue to support us.