On December 7-8, round 8 of SUPER GT was held at the Suzuka Circuit in Mie Prefecture, which had been postponed due to the typhoon in August. For this final round, the weight handicaps that had been applied up until the Motegi race were removed.

The day before the qualifying on the 6th, drivers and pit crews repeatedly practiced simulations of their pit stop positions, tire changes, and refueling operations in preparation for the race.

The qualifiers on Saturday the 7th took place under clear skies for the first time in a while, with the official practice starting in dry conditions. During the GT500 class exclusive run, driver Tsukakoshi set a top time of 1'43.840, breaking the course record and creating a sense of anticipation.

For Q1, Tsukakoshi carefully warmed up his tires more than usual with temperatures reaching below 10 degrees Celsius, achieving a time of 1'43.988 and placing him in fourth. In Q2, driver Ota took the time to warm up and launched his attack just in time, recording a second-best time of 1'43.220. Combined, these led to a second place spot on the grid.

In the finals on Sunday, the 300-km, 52-lap race started slightly earlier than usual at 12:50 pm to account for the earlier sunset. At the opening lap, Tsukakoshi attempted to overtake the leading #36 TGR TEAM au TOM’S, but finished the in 2nd. On the 10th lap, he tried to improve his position by taking advantage of the overtaking in the GT300 class, but there was contact with #87 METALIVE S Lamborghini GT3 at the Degner Curve, dropping him to 5th. This led to a full-course yellow (FCY) being declared, but car number 17 did not sustain significant damage, and the race restarted on the 11th lap.

Subsequently, the Astemo Civic Type R-GT pitted on the 18th lap. The perfect execution of tire changes, refueling, and driver swap drew applause from the pit crew. Ohta took over as the driver and rejoined the course in 3rd. By the 30th lap, he had closed the gap to four seconds with the #3 Niterra MOTUL Z ahead. An FCY was declared again on the 31st lap, and after the race restart the #3 Niterra MOTUL Z spun out on the following lap, with Ohta moving to 2nd place. With subsequent laps, he closed the distance to the leading #36 TGR TEAM au TOM'S and made a decisive move at the Hitachi Astemo Chicane with four laps remaining. He dove inside with late braking and briefly pushed his nose in front, but couldn't overtake completely. He continued to aggressively pursue the top spot until the very end, but finished at 2nd place and just 1.513 seconds behind the leader.

The 2024 season was marked by many accidents and unfavorable weather, leading to races without desired results. However, in the final race, the efforts, strategy, and passion of Director Kaneishi, the drivers, and the team staff culminated in an intense race and a strong finish. Thank you for your unwavering support of Astemo REAL RACING until the end, and stay tuned for 2025 news.