Hiratsuka, Japan—The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd., is pleased to announce that a car equipped with its global flagship ADVAN brand tires finished first in the GT300 class in Round 7 of the 2024 AUTOBACS SUPER GT Series, Japan’s ultimate touring car racing series. Round 7 was held on October 19-20 at the AUTOPOLIS Circuit in Oita Prefecture. Yokohama Rubber is aiming to recapture the GT300 class championship in the SUPER GT Series as part of its ADVAN CHALLENGE, which seeks to maximize sales of ADVAN tires. ADVAN tires’ excellent performance supported the winning car as it raced to victory.

The winner of the three-hour race was JLOC’s VENTENY Lamborghini GT3, driven by Takashi Kogure and Yuya Motojima. Round 7’s qualifying and final races were held on the same day on Sunday October 20 owing to bad weather on Saturday. After finishing 15th in the qualifying race, Kogure and Motojima achieved an amazing come-from-behind win to claim their second victory of the season. From start to finish, Round 7 was a tumultuous race that saw the safety car deployed four times owing to several incidents on the course. Motojima took the wheel from the start of the race and drove calmly at high speeds. After the race resumed following a second safety car interruption, Motojima moved up among the leaders and then turned the wheel over to Kogure. After the third safety car interruption, Kogure took tentative lead and fiercely increased the pace, keeping the rest of the field at bay. With just 17 minutes left in the three-hour race, a crash led to the fourth deployment of the safety car, which eventually took the chequered flag. The first place finish in Round 7 moved Kogure and Motojima up to third place in the series driver team point standings with two races remaining.

The consumer tire strategy in Yokohama Rubber’s three-year (2024–2026) medium-term management plan, Yokohama Transformation 2026 (YX2026), aims to maximize the sales ratios of high-value-added tires by expanding sales of YOKOHAMA’s global flagship ADVAN brand, the GEOLANDAR brand of tires for SUVs and pickup trucks, winter tires, and 18-inch and larger tires. Yokohama Rubber positions participation in motorsports activities as crucial to its effort to further strengthen the ADVAN and GEOLANDAR brands. Yokohama Rubber therefore is again participating in a wide variety of motorsports events around the globe, from top-category to grassroots events.