An introduction to Super GT (part 1) #blogpost

Super GT is the biggest championship in Japan, with factory entries from Honda, Nissan and Toyota. Many cars are used across the two classes though, and many of them are very interesting. In these posts I hope to deal with the history of the series, have a look at some of the circuits, drivers and cars used.

Part 1: History and tracks
Part 2: Drivers and cars

Hope you enjoy :)

History

The series, originally called the Japanese Grand Touring Championship, began in 1994 to replace the All Japan Sports Prototype Championship (for Group C cars). The first year featured a variety of Japan Super Sport Sedan cars, prototypes and European GT cars, but for the second year two classes were used - Class 1 (similar to FIA GT1) and Class 2 (similar to FIA GT2).

The rules were changed again for the third year, with the two classes now being called GT500 and GT300. These cars were heavily regulated and weight penalties were given out to the most succesful cars in a process similar to that of the Balance of Performance regulations used by some FIA endurance classes.

The series is committed to providing close racing that is exciting for the fans, at the expense of runaway development by teams, with the cars being heavily tampered with by the governing body and pit stops and driver changes only being allowed within mandatory windows.

In 2004 the series was renamed Super GT to reflect the championship’s intention of expanding beyond Japan.

The cars are similar to those used in DTM in Germany, and in 2010 it was announced that Super GT was looking into uniting the regulations with that of DTM. In 2014 it was announced that as part of this the 4.5 l V8 would be replaced by a turbocharged 2.0 l 4-cylinder.

The races are a endurance race of 300 km, or sometimes more, like the Suzuka 1000 km.

Tracks

The championship is ran on some of the most famous Japanese race tracks, and in the past a round was also held at Sepang International Raceway in Malaysia. Plans have been made for races in China and South Korea, though those fell through. Chang International Circuit in Thailand has also hosted an event since 2014.

Here is the calendar for the 2016 season:

Okayama International Circuit (300 km) April 10
Fuji Speedway (500 km) May 4
Autopolis Circuit (300 km) May 22 (CANCELLED)
Sportsland SUGO (300 km) July 24
Fuji Speedway (300 km) August 7
Suzuka Circuit (1000 km) August 28
Chang International Circuit (300 km) October 9
Twin Ring Motegi (TBA) November 12
Twin Ring Motegi (250 km) November 13

Part 2 will hopefully come out sometime this week, but I may just end up procrastinating :) thanks for reading

EDIT: Having written part of Part 2, I have decided that GT500 cars and drivers only will be featured in Part 2. I will do Part 3 with GT300 : )

Part 2: https://www.carthrottle.com/post/wmdldxr/
Part 3: https://www.carthrottle.com/post/w9vkoj7/