Hiratsuka, Japan—The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd., is pleased to announce that a car fitted with its global flagship ADVAN brand tires finished first in the GT500 class in Round 6 of the 2025 AUTOBACS SUPER GT Series, Japan’s ultimate GT (Grand Touring) car racing series. Round 6 was a 300km race held on September 20-21 at the Sportsland SUGO in Miyagi Prefecture. ADVAN tires’ steady and solid performance supported the winning car as it sped to victory, the first this season in the GT500 class for a car fitted with ADVAN tires.

The winning car was KONDO RACING’s No. 24 REALIZE CORPORATION ADVAN Z driven by Tsugio Matsuda and Teppei Natori. Starting from the 5th position based on the previous day’s qualifying race result, first-stint driver Matsuda maintained a high speed and took the lead temporarily on lap 24 and continued to battle with rival drivers for the lead until handing No. 24 over to Natori. A crash during lap 49 involving several cars temporarily halted the race. When it resumed in a 30-minute final stage, Natori was in 3rd place. He quickly moved up to 2nd place and steadily narrowed the gap with the leading car. With only about one minute left in the race, Natori entered the final lap nose-to-tail with the leader and after a fierce battle took the lead and held it to the checkered flag. The dramatic come-from-behind victory is KONDO RACING’s first win in nine years and raised Tsugio Matsuda’s record for most wins in the GT500 class to 25 (total for SUPER GT and its predecessor All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship). The win is Teppei Natori’s first victory in the GT500 class.

In the GT300 class, two ADVAN-fitted cars were among the top three finishers, with KONDO RACING’s No. 56 REALIZE NISSAN MECHANIC CHALLENGE GT-R (drivers: Joao Paulo de Oliveira/Kohei Hirate) taking the checkered flag in 2nd place and seven × seven Racing’s No. 666 seven × seven PORSCHE GT3R (drivers: Tsubasa Kondo/Harry King) in 3rd place.

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.