The final round of the 2011 Super GT series, Motegi GT 250km Race, was held at Twinring Motegi in Tochigi prefecture on 15-16 October. This was the championship deciding race for both GT500 and GT300 classes.

The qualifying day of this final Motegi round was hit by rain throughout, as many races of the series had been this season. In the knock out system qualifying adopted in this round, one of the two ADVAN shoed GT500 cars, WedsSport ADVAN SC430, survived the Q1 and Q2 eliminations with Tatsuya Kataoka at the wheel. Then the car was handed to Seiji Ara for the Q3 session in which the top seven cars were allowed to make their final time attack attempt. Under difficult conditions caused by a bit more rain, Ara set the sixth fastest time and obtained their best grid position of the season. The achievement clearly showed the progress that the team and its car had made, as well as the superb wet performance of ADVAN tires.

In the GT300 class, the runner-up in the championship contention, Hatsune Miku GoodSmile BMW, displayed its true performance, as most of regular contenders were allowed to unload their weight handicaps according the rules. The car led the practice sessions with the best time in a 2'02 bracket and, carrying the momentum into the qualifying session, Taku Bamba registered the fastest time in Q2. Answering his teammate's great effort, Nobuteru Taniguchi also set the fastest time of 2'04"356 in Q3, which was well ahead of the championship rival's time, 2'05"234, and secured their third pole position of the season.

The track surfaces were still wet when the competitors went out for the warm up session on Sunday morning and the two ADVAN equipped cars looked to be in good shape, as ADVAN Kondo GT-R and WedsSport ADVAN SC430 ended the session in fourth and seventh respectively. Then, after the Circuit Safari attraction, the weather rapidly improved and the race was run on the completely dry track, as was forecasted.

The air temperature was 27 degrees Celsius with the track temperatures at 34 when the 53 lap race got underway. Starting from the eighth grid, ADVAN Kondo GT-R was involve in contact with another car on Lap 5 and was forced to make an unscheduled pit stop three laps later. Because of this, the car lost a lot of ground in the early stage but the crew bravely endured the hopeless situation throughout and the car was classified as the 12th finisher in the final result.

Ara was at the wheel of WedsSport ADVAN SC430 at the start. After moving up to sixth on Lap 9, he soon began a tail-to-nose fight with a HSV-010 in front of him and the battle ended when the Honda came in the pit on Lap 19. Now running in fifth, Ara made the scheduled pit stop four laps later. Considering a stint of some 30 laps for the second half of the race, the team decided to put the harder tires on the car, instead of the medium compound which Ara had used, for the Kataoka's stint.

However, Kataoka now on the track found himself struggling to exploit the potential of his hard tires because the surface temperature dropped more rapidly than anticipated. As a result, returning to the point scoring position became quite a difficult task for him. Eventually, WedsSport ADVAN SC430 received the checkered flag as the 12th car to finish but, as a time penalty was given to a competitor after the race, the WedsSport car was promoted to the 11th place in the final result.

The GT300 class championship was fought between the top two qualifiers, the pole sitting Hatsune Miku GoodSmile BMW and the Ferrari 458 on the second grid.

The Hatsune Miku car was the fastest in the warm up session in the morning and, for the first time this season, Bamba was appointed as the starting driver for the race. Receiving a lot of spurs from Taniguchi and team staffs, and even from his rival drivers, Bamba made a good start without yielding to heavy pressure and led the field when they entered the first corner. Then, he quickly built a 1.4 second gap with the championship rival, the no.11 Ferrari, during the opening lap.

Behind them, Kota Sasaki in R&D Sport Legacy B4 was in hot pursuit. After overtaking JLOC Lamborghini RG-3, with Hiroyuki Iiri at the wheel, at Turn 5 of Lap 2, he then jumped on the Ferrari 458 running in second and passed it three laps later at Turn 3. The Subaru driver, now in second, started to reduce the gap with the race leader and the margin of more than 4 second became less than a second when both cars entered into Lap 8. However, Sasaki's progress prematurely ended when he was forced to come in the pit on the next lap.

"The left rear wheel nut suddenly came loose and the car wobbled. I thought I would watch for the opportunity to overtake the leader because I had a plenty of time to do so but...," said Sasaki. Thanks to the team's swift-handed repair work, R&D Sport Legacy B4 rejoined the race before being lapped by the leader. But dropping down to 18th meant that the car was totally out of contention now.

After taking over the second, the Ferrari visited the pit on Lap 19. Then, on the next lap, the leading Hatsune Miku BMW reacted to it and came in the pit. The team finished the work on the car in about 40 seconds that included changing four tires and managed to gain six valuable seconds against the opponent during the stop. On top of this, Taniguchi's hard push on his out lap led to a 10 second gap with the Ferrari, while only two seconds had separated the top two before their pit stops.

When the interim leader, Evangelion RT Test Type-01 Apple Shiden, came in on Lap 36, Hatsune Miku BMW duly regained the lead position and Taniguchi continued to drive without relaxing his pace.

The checkered flag fell at the end of their 49th lap and Hatsune Miku GoodSmile BMW secured the third win of the season from the pole position. With this victory, Taniguchi/Bamba pair reversed the point standings situation and claimed the championship, as the Ferrari ended the race in the third place. It was the well-deserved title crown for them because the pair scored three wins against the opponent's no win through the season, which confirmed again the superior performance of ADVAN racing tires that has supported their fight for the championship.

　[Result : 1st. in the GT300 class]
"Firstly, I'd like to thank the team, Yokohama Rubber and everybody who helped us. I am very, very happy at the moment. After spending ten years in the Super GT series, I finally got the championship title. I am full of emotion as I've never thought we could win the title by reversing the unfavorable situation.
"Today, we entrusted the role of starting driver to Bamba for the first time and he safely brought the car back to the pit. So I was determined to defend the lead position which he handed over to me no matter what happened. After achieving the task, I feel relieved and delighted. The team has become stronger race after race and has been able to overcome the ever-increasing performance control handicaps. Another reason for our victory was of course the effort of Yokohama Rubber which always supplied us better tires than before."

　[Result : 1st in the GT300 class]
"I'm just so happy! I would like to thank the staff of Yokohama Rubber, everybody in the team, Taniguchi-san who always guided me through a whole year, and all the people around us.
"After the race at Autopolis, during our flight back home, Taniguchi-san told me 'Do me a favor. I really want to get this championship title.' So I tried to do everything I could during these two weeks. I was very well prepared for this race and I was confident about starting the race for the first time. I just thought, "I will be OK only if I am focused as usual." Taniguchi-san is always mentally strong and tells me everything I need to know without any disguise. With his great help, I have become a much more matured driver and I am sure this experience will change even my whole life!"

"At first, I think our performance in the wet qualifying session was generally respectable.
"Then, the race was run on the dry surface, as anticipated, and WedsSport ADVAN SC430 did a good race, I would say. In hindsight, if we gave the same tires that Ara used for the first stint to Kataoka, he would have driven in a faster race pace and might have got some points at the end of the race.
"As for ADVAN Kondo GT-R, our tire choice affected the final result again. If the car had started with the tires which Wirdheim used in the second stint, it should be able to run in a comparable pace with the leading cars.
"We were very glad to see Hatsune Miku GoodSmile BMW won the GT300 championship from the runner-up position in the point standings before the race.
"For this race, we enhanced the general performance level of GT300 tires and also introduced new specification wet tires. In the wet qualifying session, those new tires worked very well and there weren't any problems with the tires in the race that was run on the dry surfaces. One of the reasons for Hatsune Miku GoodSmile BMW's victory was Bamba's great job as the starting driver, as he had maintained a good margin before changing to the team's ace, Taniguchi."