Round 3 of D1GP was held at Suzuka Circuit on May 25th and 26th. Three Mazdas entered Saturday's qualifying session. However, MAD FACE KANTO with SAMURAI Project driver Takahiro Imamura in his #21 RX-7 (FC3S) had engine trouble and was unable to drive normally, and the #88 GLIDEAUTO with Line up APP RACING 20B-equipped RX-7 (FD3S) of Manabu Fujinaka was eliminated after he failed to improve his score in the first half of the judging section. Yukio Matsui in the #77 EXEDY R Magic D1 Racing RX-7 (FD3S) gave a relatively strong driving performance, but fell short of the top eight due to deviations from the line, and was he knocked out of the qualifier.

Meanwhile, the #7 RE Amemiya SUNOCO with YOKOHAMA RX-8 of Masao Suenaga was exempted from the session because he was in 8th place - and would thus start with Sunday's solo final. In that session, Suenaga got off to a good start and displayed well-timed acceleration control while closely tracing the line and obtaining a high score. Having placed 6th in the solo run, he entered the twin run contest.

Suenaga's opponent in the twin run session was Kuniaki Takahashi driving a Mark X. In the first run with Suenaga in the lead, both drivers made mistakes, resulting in a 50-50 decision. In the second run with Suenaga following, the Mazda driver fell behind the high-powered, fast-accelerating Mark X on the straight sections while aggressively closing the gap in the corners. However, a sometimes messy driving style cost him a large number of points. Suenaga was eliminated in the Best 16. He placed 10th overall for the round.