The Suzuka 1000km, also known as the Suzuka Summer Endurance Race,[1] is an annual sports car endurance race that has been held at the Suzuka Circuit in Mie Prefecture, Japan since 1966. After a five-year hiatus, the event is scheduled to return in September 2025 as part of the SRO Intercontinental GT Challenge.[2]
The event has been held 48 times from 1966 to 2019, as both a standalone endurance race and as part of numerous domestic and international sports car racing championships including the Intercontinental GT Challenge, Super GT Series, FIA GT Championship, All-Japan Sports Prototype Championship, and World Sportscar Championship.[3]
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The Suzuka 1000km was first held as a standalone event on 26 June 1966. It was one of three long-distance endurance races held at Suzuka Circuit during the 1960s, alongside the Suzuka 500km and Suzuka 12 Hours.[citation needed]
The race went on hiatus from 1974 until 1979 as a consequence of the 1970s energy crisis, but returned in 1980 as a non-championship endurance race. In 1981, the Suzuka 1000km was held in the fourth weekend of August for the first time. With the exception of the 1989 race that was delayed to December due to inclement weather, the Suzuka 1000km and Suzuka 10 Hours would continue to take place in the fourth weekend of August every year through its most recent running in 2019.[citation needed]
From 1983 to 1991, the Suzuka 1000km was part of the All Japan Endurance Championship (renamed to the All Japan Sports Prototype Championship in 1987).[3] In 1992, the race was added to the FIA World Sportscar Championship calendar, but the series folded after the 1992 season, which meant that the 1993 race would be run as a non-championship round.[citation needed]
In 1994, the Suzuka 1000km became part of the inaugural BPR Global GT Series calendar. Pokka became the new title sponsor of the race, and the Pokka 1000km continued as a championship round of the BPR Global GT Series and its successor, the FIA GT Championship, through 1998.[citation needed]
When the race was dropped from the FIA GT calendar in 1999, the Pokka 1000km reverted to a non-championship endurance race. Through 2005 the race was open to GT500 and GT300 cars from the All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship (JGTC), as well as cars from the Super Taikyu Series.[citation needed]
On 12 August 2005, it was announced that the race would become part of the newly-renamed Autobacs Super GT Series championship, beginning in 2006.[4][5] Upon its inclusion, the Suzuka 1000km became the longest and most prestigious event on the Super GT calendar during this time period, and also paid the most championship points of any round on the calendar. [citation needed]
Due to the effects of the Great Recession in Japan, the race was shortened to 700 kilometres from 2009 to 2010, and the race was renamed to the Pokka GT Summer Special. A second national crisis, the Great Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami, led to the event being shortened further to 500 kilometres in 2011. The original 1000 kilometre distance was restored from 2012.[citation needed]
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. The 46th annual Suzuka 1000km, held that year as part of the Super GT Series, would be the last edition of the Suzuka Summer Endurance Race in its original format. [citation needed]
The Suzuka 10 Hours became part of the Intercontinental GT Challenge championship in 2018, replacing the Sepang 12 Hours held in Malaysia.[6] The reformatted event attracted top teams and drivers from international GT3 racing, as well as teams from Super GT and Super Taikyu, by offering a ¥100,000,000 prize purse with the overall winner receiving ¥30,000,000.[7]
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.[8] The race was set to return on 22 August 2021, but with strict travel restrictions still in place during the pandemic, the 2021 race was also cancelled.[9]
At the same time, the Super GT Series was also forced to overhaul its calendar in 2020. The series scheduled two 300 kilometre races at Suzuka that year, including one on 23 August, the date originally scheduled for the Suzuka 10 Hours.[10] Super GT originally scheduled just one 300km race at Suzuka for May 2021, but due to a surge in COVID-19 cases in the region, the race was moved back to 22 August, again taking over the date originally scheduled for the Suzuka 10 Hours.[11]
Since 2022, Super GT has scheduled a 450 kilometre race at Suzuka on the fourth weekend of August, though in 2024, the summer race at Suzuka will move to the first weekend of September.[12] Meanwhile, the Suzuka 10 Hours' place as the Asian round on the Intercontinental GT Challenge calendar was taken by the Gulf 12 Hours at Yas Marina Circuit in 2022 and 2023.
During the 2024 SRO press conference at Spa-Francorchamps, Stephane Ratel announced that the Suzuka 1000km will return in September 2025 as part of the Intercontinental GT Challenge.
Among drivers, Kunimitsu Takahashi holds the all-time record with four overall victories at the Suzuka 1000 km. Five other drivers – Daisuke Ito, Ryo Michigami, Naoki Nagasaka, Sébastien Philippe, and Juichi Wakisaka, have won the event three times overall.[citation needed]
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, Benoît Tréluyer, Loïc Duval, and Kazuki Nakajima. Past winners including Marcel Tiemann, Bernd Schneider, Frédéric Makowiecki, Maro Engel, Kelvin van der Linde, Dries Vanthoor, and Frédéric Vervisch have also won the Nürburgring 24 Hour race. Other notable former winners include three-time 24 Hours of Daytona winner Bob Wollek, 1989 Japanese Grand Prix winner Alessandro Nannini, 2015 FIA World Endurance Drivers' Champion and Formula One Grand Prix winner Mark Webber, four-time Super GT GT500 Drivers' Champion Ronnie Quintarelli, all-time GT500 class wins leader Tsugio Matsuda, and 2018 and 2020 Japanese "double champion" Naoki Yamamoto.[citation needed]
In recent years, the event has drawn interest from previous Formula One world champion drivers, many of whom had raced at Suzuka Circuit for years during their F1 careers. 2009 champion Jenson Button made his Super GT debut in the 2017 running of the Suzuka 1000 km, and in 2019, two-time world champion Mika Häkkinen returned to compete at the Suzuka 10 Hours.
Porsche has more victories in the race than any manufacturer – eleven in total, spanning from 1967 to 1994. 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. Toyota's Lexus luxury brand has also won the race five times representing Toyota in the GT500 class of Super GT, from 2006 to 2017.
