The 1996 All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship was the fourth season of Japan Automobile Federation GT premiere racing. It was marked as well as the fourteenth season of a JAF-sanctioned sports car racing championship dating back to the All Japan Sports Prototype Championship. The GT500 class champion was the #61 Team Lark McLaren F1 GTR driven by David Brabham and John Nielsen, and the GT300 class champion was the #26 Team Taisan Jr Porsche 964 driven by Keiichi Suzuki and Morio Nitta.
For the 1996 season, the names of the two classes of the JGTC were changed to GT500 and GT300, replacing the previous GT1 and GT2 names from the 1994 and 1995 season. This season also mandated two-driver teams for all races. On November 17, the series held its first non-championship "All-Star Race" at Central Circuit.
The arrival of the McLaren F1 GTRs, prepared by Team Goh, was the biggest story of the 1996 season. The number 60 McLaren of Naoki Hattori and Ralf Schumacher led a 1-2 finish at the season opening round at Suzuka. However, despite winning three races, Hattori and Schumacher also suffered three retirements, and were beaten to the title by their senior teammates, Brabham and Nielsen. Despite massive performance handicaps instituted by the GTA, the two McLaren F1 GTRs combined to win four of the six championship races, and won pole position and set fastest lap in all six. At odds with the GTA over further performance handicaps that were to be proposed, Team Goh withdrew from the series after the championship finale at Miné Circuit, and after an aborted attempt to return in 2006, they would not return to the series until 2019.
The season also featured the debut of the Honda NSX in the series, although direct factory support would not appear until the following season; as such, the car entered by Team Kunimitsu was mostly mechanically identical to the 1995 24 Hours of Le Mans GT2 class winner.
Drivers and teams
editGT500
editGT300
editSchedule
editRound | Race | Circuit | Date |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Suzuka GT 300 | Suzuka Circuit | March 31 |
2 | All Japan Fuji GT Race | Fuji Speedway | May 4 |
3 | HiLand GT Championship | Sendai Hi-Land Raceway | June 30 |
4 | Japan Special GT-Cup | Fuji Speedway | August 11 |
5 | SUGO GT Championship | Sportsland SUGO | October 6 |
6 | CP Mine GT Race | Mine Circuit | October 27 |
NC | Nicos Cup GT Allstar Race | Central Circuit | November 17 |
Season results
editPoint Ranking
editGT500 Class
editDrivers
editRank | No. | Driver | SUZ | FUJ | SEN | FUJ | SUG | MIN | CEN | Points |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 61 | John Nielsen David Brabham |
2 | 1 | 8 | 2 | Ret | 4 | 63 | |
2 | 60 | Naoki Hattori Ralf Schumacher |
1 | Ret | 15 | Ret | 1 | 1 | 60 | |
3 | 37 | Érik Comas | 16 | 4 | 1 | Ret | 4 | 2 | 2 | 55 |
4 | 1 | Masahiko Kageyama Kazuyoshi Hoshino |
8 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 2 | Ret | 5 | 54 |
5 | 3 | Masahiro Hasemi Tetsuya Tanaka |
3 | 6 | 2 | 14 | 6 | 5 | 1 | 47 |
6 | 2 | Aguri Suzuki Hideo Fukuyama |
4 | Ret | 7 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 46 |
7 | 37 | Hironori Takeuchi | 1 | Ret | 4 | 2 | 2 | 45 | ||
8 | 36 | Masanori Sekiya | 5 | 2 | 3 | Ret | 8 | Ret | 4 | 38 |
8 | 36 | Pedro de la Rosa | 5 | 2 | 3 | Ret | 8 | Ret | 38 | |
9 | 39 | Alain Ferté | 17 | 3 | 4 | 9 | 7 | 28 | ||
10 | 39 | Wayne Gardner | 17 | 3 | 4 | 9 | 8 | 27 | ||
11 | 556 | Toshio Suzuki Masahiko Kondo |
6 | Ret | 17 | 5 | 3 | 10 | 10 | 27 |
12 | 8 | Tom Kristensen | 10 | 13 | 6 | 4 | 14 | 7 | 21 | |
13 | 8 | Bertrand Gachot | 4 | 14 | 7 | 14 | ||||
14 | 37 | Hidetoshi Mitsusada | 16 | 4 | 10 | |||||
15 | 34 | Hideshi Matsuda Osamu Nakako |
9 | 9 | Ret | 12 | 12 | 6 | 8 | 10 |
16 | 55 | Kenji Tohira Hiroyuki Kawai |
11 | 10 | 11 | 6 | 9 | 9 | ||
17 | 100 | Kunimitsu Takahashi Keiichi Tsuchiya |
Ret | 8 | 12 | 7 | 10 | 11 | 6 | 8 |
18 | 8 | Tatsuya Tanigawa | 10 | 13 | 6 | 7 | ||||
19 | 30 | Yoji Yamada | 7 | 11 | 9 | Ret | Ret | Ret | 9 | 6 |
19 | 30 | Eiichi Tajima | 7 | 11 | 9 | Ret | Ret | Ret | 6 | |
20 | 35 | Oscar Larrauri | 7 | Ret | 15 | Ret | 4 | |||
20 | 35 | Takeshi Tsuchiya | 12 | 7 | Ret | 4 | ||||
20 | 39 | Naoki Nagasaka | 7 | 4 | ||||||
23 | 43 | Yasutaka Hinoi Yukio Yamamoto |
Ret | 12 | 13 | 8 | 13 | Ret | 3 | |
23 | 39 | Giampiero Simoni | 8 | 3 | ||||||
25 | 25 | Masami Kageyama Yuji Tachikawa |
Ret | Ret | Ret | 9 | 2 | |||
26 | 5 | Kaoru Iida | 13 | 14 | 10 | Ret | Ret | 12 | 1 | |
26 | 5 | Tetsuya Ota | 13 | 14 | 10 | Ret | 12 | 1 | ||
26 | 16 | Tetsushi Toda | 10 | 11 | 1 | |||||
26 | 15 | Mitsuno Taro | 16 | 0 | ||||||
16 | 10 | 1 | ||||||||
88 | Takao Wada | Ret | Ret | 11 | Ret | 13 | 0 | |||
88 | Satoshi Ikezawa | Ret | 11 | Ret | 13 | 0 | ||||
16 | Tarzan Yamada | 11 | 0 | |||||||
35 | Anthony Reid | 12 | 15 | 0 | ||||||
19 | Katsuo Kobayashi | Ret | 17 | 16 | 13 | Ret | 14 | 0 | ||
19 | Manabu Orido | 13 | 0 | |||||||
69 | Kenji Kawagoe Shunji Kasuya |
14 | 15 | 14 | 0 | |||||
19 | Takeru Koma | Ret | 14 | 0 | ||||||
15 | Sekine Motoshi | 15 | 16 | Ret | 15 | Ret | 0 | |||
15 | Takahiro Ito | Ret | 15 | Ret | 0 | |||||
15 | Scott Maxwell | 15 | 0 | |||||||
19 | Naohiro Furuya | Ret | 17 | 16 | 0 | |||||
35 | Mitsuhiro Kinoshita | Ret | 0 | |||||||
5 | Michael Krumm | Ret | 0 | |||||||
16 | Osamu Nakajima Ijima Ichiro |
Ret | 0 | |||||||
88 | Tatsuhiko Kaneumi | Ret | 0 | |||||||
36 | Ukyo Katayama | 4 | 0 | |||||||
39 | Olivier Grouillard David Dussau |
7 | 0 | |||||||
30 | Kazuo Mogi | 9 | 0 |
GT300 Class (Top 5)
editDrivers
editRank | Drivers | Number/Team | Points | Wins |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Keiichi Suzuki Morio Nitta |
#26 Team Taisan Jr Porsche 964 | 90 | 3 |
2 | Seiichi Sodeyama | #910 910 Racing Porsche 993 | 65 | 2 |
3 | Morio Makiguchi Takayuki Kinoshita |
#72 Makiguchi Engineering BMW M3 | 53 | 1 |
4 | Naoki Nagasaka | #910 910 Racing Porsche 993 | 50 | 2 |
5 | Katsunori Iketani Kazuo Mogi |
#31 Cobra Racing Team Porsche 993 | 46 | 0 |
Notes
edit- ^ Nationality unknown
External links
edit- Super GT/JGTC official race archive (in Japanese)
- 1996 season results