The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd. is pleased to announce that a car equipped with its global flagship ADVAN brand tires won the GT300 class in Round 2 (3hr race) of the 2025 AUTOBACS SUPER GT Series, Japan’s ultimate touring car racing series. Round 2 was held on May 3 and 4 at the Fuji Speedway in Shizuoka Prefecture. Yokohama Rubber looks forward to winning a second consecutive series championship in the GT300 class this year 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 winning car was team VELOREX’s UNI-ROBO BLUEGRASS FERRARI, driven by Yoshiaki Katayama and Roberto Merhi Muntan. The pair achieved the victory racing to the front from a 27th position grid start, with Merhi driving fast in the first stint before handing off to Katayama. Racing at a fast pace and without trouble, Katayama moved up among the leaders before turning the car over to Merhi again for the final stint. After all cars had finished their routine pit stops, Merhi was in 2nd place with 10 minutes left in the three-hour race. Believing victory remained a possibility despite trailing by a difficult-to-overcome gap of many seconds, Merhi continued to apply pressure to the car ahead of him and passed the leading car when it suddenly stopped on the last lap due to a mechanical problem. Merhi then took the checkered flag for a come-from-behind win that gave team VELOREX its long-awaited first SUPER GT victory. Fourth-place finisher CARGUY FERRARI 296 GT3 (Zak O’Sullivan/Rikuto Kobayashi/Keita Sawa) also raced on YOKOHAMA tires.
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.
