Suzuka 10 Hours

Fireworks at the 2014 race.

The race, as a 1000 kilometre race, was first held as a standalone event from 1966 to 1973. After a hiatus, the event returned in 1980 for three years before joining the All Japan Sports Prototype Championship, the forerunner to Super GT, in 1983.[1] The event later hosted a round of the 1992 World Sportscar Championship before these series were cancelled. After that the race became part of many different series, including the BPR Global GT Series from 1994 to 1996, the FIA GT Championship from 1997 to 1998, and the Super Taikyu Series as well as returning to being a non-championship event. In 2006, the race was added to the Super GT championship calendar for the first time. Previously, the race was open to JGTC/Super GT cars, but only a handful of competitors from the Super GT championship took part. In 2018, the race moved to the Intercontinental GT Challenge championship, replacing the Sepang 12 Hours held in Malaysia, featuring GT3 and select GT300 class cars from Super GT.[2]

Beverage company Pokka served as the title sponsor of the race from 1994 until 2014. In 2019, Japanese banking company SMBC and collector car auction house BH Auction became the new joint title sponsors of the Suzuka 10 Hours.

The race was traditionally held over 1000 kilometres from 1966 to 2008. From 2009 to 2011, the race length varied; the 2009 Super GT race was shortened to 700 km due to increasing costs and CO
2 emissions regulations, as well as the economic crisis. The 700 km distance was retained in 2010, but as a result of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami and Super GT energy conservation regulations in force that year, the race was cut to 500 km.[1] From 2012, the race returned to being a 1000 kilometre event. In 2018, the race became a 10-hour event as part of its move from Super GT into the Intercontinental GT Challenge, matching the distance of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race Petit Le Mans held in Braselton, Georgia (United States).[2][3]

In 2018 and 2019, the race offered a prize purse of ¥100 million Yen, with the overall winner receiving a ¥30 million share, the second place finisher receiving ¥10 million, and the third place finisher receiving ¥5 million. Prize money is also awarded for the top team in a number of sub-classes including Pro-Am Cup, Silver Cup, and Am Cup. The top teams from Super GT and Super Taikyu also receive a prize bonus, as well as the winner of the Asia Award (given to the top team with no less than two Asian drivers), and the fastest team in both phases of qualifying. In 2019, a "Team of the Day" award was introduced, allowing viewers to vote for their favourite team during the race - who will also receive a prize bonus.[4]

Among drivers, Kunimitsu Takahashi holds the all-time record with four overall victories at the Suzuka 1000km, winning for the first time in 1973, then taking three more victories during the Group C era of the JSPC in 1984, 1985, and 1989. Five other drivers - Daisuke Ito, Ryo Michigami, Naoki Nagasaka, Sébastien Philippe, and Juichi Wakisaka, have won the event three times overall.

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 former Scuderia Toro Rosso third driver, 2018 Japanese "double champion" Naoki Yamamoto.

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 1000km, and in 2019, two-time world champion Mika Häkkinen returned to compete at the Suzuka 10 Hours.

Porsche have more victories in the race than any manufacturer - eleven in total, spanning from 1967 to 1994. The winningest 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.

List of winners

Year	Overall Winner(s)	Entrant	Car	Series	Length
1966	Sachio Fukuzawa Tomohiko Tsutsumi		Toyota 2000GT	Non-championship	1000 km
1967	Shintaro Taki Kenjiro Tanaka		Porsche 906
1968	Sachio Fukuzawa Hiroshi Fushida		Toyota 7
1969	Tomohiko Tsutsumi Jiro Yoneyama		Porsche 906
1970	Kawakami Nishino Koji Fujita		Nissan Fairlady Z432
1971	Yoshimasa Kawaguchi Hiroshi Fushida		Porsche 910
1972	Harukuni Takahashi Kenichi Takeshita		Toyota Celica 1600GT-R
1973	Kunimitsu Takahashi Kenji Tohira		Nissan Fairlady Z432R
1974 – 1979	Not held
1980	Hironobu Tatsumi Naoki Nagasaka	Red Carpet Racing Team	March 75S-Mazda	Non-championship	1000 km
1981	Bob Wollek Henri Pescarolo	Porsche Kremer Racing	Porsche 935 K3
1982	Fumiyasu Sato Naoki Nagasaka	Auto Beaurex Motor Sports	BMW M1
1983	Naohiro Fujita Vern Schuppan	Trust Racing Team	Porsche 956	JSPC
1984	Kunimitsu Takahashi Kenji Takahashi Geoff Lees	Advan Sport Team Nova	Porsche 956
1985	Kunimitsu Takahashi Kenji Takahashi	Advan Sport Team Nova	Porsche 962C
1986	Jiro Yoneyama Hideki Okada Tsunehisa Asai	FromA Racing	Porsche 956
1987	Geoff Lees Masanori Sekiya Hitoshi Ogawa	Toyota Team TOM's	Toyota 87C
1988	Hideki Okada Stanley Dickens	FromA Racing	Porsche 962C
1989	Kunimitsu Takahashi Stanley Dickens	Advan Alpha Nova Racing	Porsche 962C
1990	Kazuyoshi Hoshino Toshio Suzuki	Nissan Motorsports	Nissan R90CP
1991	Roland Ratzenberger Pierre-Henri Raphanel Naoki Nagasaka	Toyota Team SARD	Toyota 91C-V
1992	Derek Warwick Yannick Dalmas	Peugeot Talbot Sport	Peugeot 905 Evo 1B	WSC
1993	Takao Wada Toshio Suzuki	Team LeMans	Nissan R92CP	JGTC
1994	Jean-Pierre Jarier Bob Wollek Jesús Pareja	Larbre Competition	Porsche 911 Turbo S LM-GT	BPR GT
1995	Ray Bellm Maurizio Sandro Sala Masanori Sekiya	GTC Racing	McLaren F1 GTR-BMW
1996	Ray Bellm James Weaver JJ Lehto	Gulf Racing GTC	McLaren F1 GTR-BMW
1997	Alessandro Nannini Marcel Tiemann	AMG-Mercedes	Mercedes-Benz CLK-GTR	FIA GT
1998	Bernd Schneider Mark Webber	AMG-Mercedes	Mercedes-Benz CLK LM
1999	Osamu Nakako Ryo Michigami Katsutomo Kaneishi	Mugen x Dome Project	Honda NSX GT500	Non-championship
2000	Juichi Wakisaka Katsutomo Kaneishi Daisuke Ito	Mugen x Dome Project	Honda NSX GT500
2001	Hironori Takeuchi Yuji Tachikawa Shigekazu Wakisaka	Toyota Team Cerumo	Toyota Supra GT500
2002	Juichi Wakisaka Akira Iida Shigekazu Wakisaka	Esso Toyota Team LeMans	Toyota Supra GT500
2003	Ryo Michigami Sébastien Philippe	Dome Racing Team	Honda NSX GT500
2004	Ryo Michigami Sébastien Philippe Daisuke Ito	Dome Racing Team	Honda NSX GT500
2005	André Couto Ronnie Quintarelli Hayanari Shimoda	Denso Toyota Team SARD	Toyota Supra GT500
2006	Benoît Tréluyer Kazuki Hoshino Jérémie Dufour	Calsonic Team Impul	Nissan Fairlady Z GT500	Super GT
2007	André Lotterer Juichi Wakisaka Oliver Jarvis	Houzan Toyota Team TOM's	Lexus SC430 GT500
2008	Tsugio Matsuda Sébastien Philippe	Calsonic Team Impul	Nissan GT-R GT500
2009	Hiroaki Ishiura Kazuya Oshima	Lexus Team Kraft	Lexus SC430 GT500		700 km
2010	Ralph Firman Yuji Ide Takashi Kobayashi	Autobacs Racing Team Aguri	Honda HSV-010 GT GT500
2011	Takashi Kogure Loïc Duval	Weider Honda Racing	Honda HSV-010 GT GT500		500 km
2012	Masataka Yanagida Ronnie Quintarelli	MOLA International	Nissan GT-R GT500		1000 km
2013	Frédéric Makowiecki Naoki Yamamoto	Weider Modulo Dome Racing	Honda HSV-010 GT GT500
2014	Kazuki Nakajima James Rossiter	Lexus Team Petronas TOM's	Lexus RC F GT500
2015	Daisuke Ito James Rossiter	Lexus Team Petronas TOM's	Lexus RC F GT500
2016	Yuji Tachikawa Hiroaki Ishiura	Lexus Team ZENT Cerumo	Lexus RC F GT500
2017	Bertrand Baguette Kosuke Matsuura	Nakajima Racing	Honda NSX-GT GT500
2018	Maro Engel Raffaele Marciello Tristan Vautier	Mercedes-AMG Team GruppeM Racing	Mercedes-AMG GT3	Intercontinental GT Challenge	1603km 996 mi (10 hours)
2019	Kelvin van der Linde Dries Vanthoor Frédéric Vervisch	Audi Sport Team WRT	Audi R8 LMS Evo		1556km 967 mi (10 hours)
2020	Not held due to COVID-19 pandemic

• 1966–93: Suzuka 1000km
• 1994–08: International Pokka 1000km
• 2010–12: Pokka GT Summer Special
• 2013-14: International Pokka Sapporo 1000km
• 2015–17: International Suzuka 1000km
• 2018: Suzuka 10 Hours
• 2019-present: SMBC BH Auction Suzuka 10 Hours