The 2011 Autobacs Super GT Series was the nineteenth season of the Japan Automobile Federation Super GT Championship including the All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship (JGTC) era and the seventh season as the Super GT series. It also marked the twenty-ninth season of a JAF-sanctioned sports car racing championship dating back to the All Japan Sports Prototype Championship. It is a series for Grand Touring race cars divided into two categories: GT500 and GT300. The season began on May 1 and ended on November 13, 2011 after 8 races and 1 non-championship race. The season was due to start on April 2, but the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami caused its postponement.

2011 GT500 champions, #46 S-Road MOLA Nissan GT-R.
2011 GT300 champions, #4 Goodsmile Hatsune Miku BMW Z4 GT3.

In the GT500 class, MOLA won the championship in their first ever season in the GT500 class. The MOLA drivers also scored some notable achievements with this title victory: Masataka Yanagida, who had won the GT300 title in 2003 and 2010, becomes the first (and so far only) driver to win both the GT500 and the GT300 class, while Ronnie Quintarelli would win his first out of four GT500 titles in this season. In the GT300 class, Goodsmile Racing & Studie shocked everyone by winning the championship with the Hatsune Miku itasha-liveried BMW Z4 GT3, giving series veteran Nobuteru Taniguchi and Taku Bamba their first title in this series. It also marked the first championship title for FIA GT3-specification cars in this series.

Schedule

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The provisional calendar was released on 8 August 2010. The Autopolis round which was absent the previous season was added to the calendar while the Suzuka race was reduced to a 700 km Endurance race only. Like the previous season, the non-Super GT pointed race JAF Grand Prix was to be raced as a conclusion to the season.[1]

However, due to the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami on March 11, a large part of the season was modified to cope with the situation.

The calendar was updated on 15 April 2011.

Round Race Circuit Date
1 Okayama GT   Okayama International Circuit May 22[2]
2 Fuji GT 1   Fuji Speedway May 1
3 Super GT International Series Malaysia
  Sepang International Circuit June 19
4 Sugo GT   Sportsland SUGO July 30
5 40th Pokka GT Summer Special
  Suzuka Circuit August 21
6 Fuji GT 2   Fuji Speedway September 11
7 Autopolis GT   Autopolis October 2
8 Motegi GT   Twin Ring Motegi October 16
NC All Star Series   Fuji Speedway November 12
November 13

Impact of Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami

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As a response of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, the racing calendar and regulations were given a lot of modifications as a response to the national policy of energy conservation.

  • The Okayama GT event, originally to be held on April 2 was postponed to 22 May despite damage to the Okayama International Circuit being minimal.[2] The GT Association would still consider it as the 1st Round. The postponement of the Fuji Round was put under consideration as well.
  • All race distances will be trimmed from 300 km to 250 km, other than the first Fuji race will change from 500 km to 300 km, and the Suzuka round from 700 km to 500 km. In addition, the Suzuka round will be only run in day sessions.
  • Pitworks at nights are limited to a shorter period of time. Overnight works are not allowed between qualifying and the race.

Drivers and teams

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GT500

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Team Make Car Engine # Drivers Tyre Round
  Weider Honda Racing Honda Honda HSV-010 GT Honda HR10EG 3.4 L V8 1   Takashi Kogure B All
  Loïc Duval All
  Lexus Team LeMans ENEOS Lexus Lexus SC430 GT500 Lexus RV8KG 3.4 L V8 6   Daisuke Itō B All
  Kazuya Oshima All
  Autobacs Racing Team Aguri Honda Honda HSV-010 GT Honda HR10EG 3.4 L V8 8   Hideki Mutoh B All
  Takashi Kobayashi All
  Team Impul Nissan Nissan GT-R GT500 Nissan VRH34A 3.4 L V8 12   Tsugio Matsuda B All
  João Paulo de Oliveira All
  Keihin Real Racing Honda Honda HSV-010 GT Honda HR10EG 3.4 L V8 17   Toshihiro Kaneishi B All
  Koudai Tsukakoshi All
  Lexus Team WedsSport BANDOH Lexus Lexus SC430 GT500 Lexus RV8KG 3.4 L V8 19   Tatsuya Kataoka Y All
  Seiji Ara All
  Nismo Nissan Nissan GT-R GT500 Honda HR10EG 3.4 L V8 23   Satoshi Motoyama B All
  Benoît Tréluyer All
  Kondō Racing Nissan Nissan GT-R GT500 Nissan VRH34A 3.4 L V8 24   Hironobu Yasuda Y All
  Björn Wirdheim All
  Nakajima Racing Honda Honda HSV-010 GT Honda HR10EG 3.4 L V8 32   Ryo Michigami D All
  Yuhki Nakayama All
  Lexus Team Kraft Lexus Lexus SC430 GT500 Lexus RV8KG 3.4 L V8 35   Juichi Wakisaka B All
  André Couto All
  Lexus Team Petronas TOM'S Lexus Lexus SC430 GT500 Lexus RV8KG 3.4 L V8 36   André Lotterer B All
  Kazuki Nakajima All
  Lexus Team ZENT Cerumo Lexus Lexus SC430 GT500 Lexus RV8KG 3.4 L V8 38   Yuji Tachikawa B All
  Kohei Hirate All
  Lexus Team SARD Lexus Lexus SC430 GT500 Lexus RV8KG 3.4 L V8 39   Hiroaki Ishiura M All
  Takuto Iguchi All
  MOLA Nissan Nissan GT-R GT500 Nissan VRH34A 3.4 L V8 46   Masataka Yanagida M All
  Ronnie Quintarelli All
  Team Kunimitsu Honda Honda HSV-010 GT Honda HR10EG 3.4 L V8 100   Takuya Izawa B All
  Naoki Yamamoto All

GT300

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Team Make Car Engine No. Drivers Tyre Round
  Cars Tokai Dream28 Mooncraft Mooncraft Shiden Toyota 1UZ-FE 4.4 L V8 2   Kazuho Takahashi Y All
  Hiroki Katoh All
  Goodsmile Racing & Studie with Team Ukyo BMW BMW Z4 GT3 BMW P65B44 4.4 L V8 4   Nobuteru Taniguchi Y All
  Taku Bamba All
  Team Mach Vemac Vemac RD320R Porsche M97/77 3.6 L F6 5   Haruki Kurosawa Y 2–8
  Tetsuji Tamanaka 2–3, 5–8
  Katsuhiko Tsutsui 4
  Direction Racing Porsche Porsche 911 GT3 R Porsche M97/79 4.0 L F6 7   Akira Mizutani Y 4–6
  Carlo van Dam 4–6
  You Yokomaku 5
  Gainer Ferrari Ferrari F430 GT2 Ferrari F136E 4.3 L V8 10   Masayuki Ueda Y 6–8
  Masataka Kawaguchi 6–8
Ferrari 458 Italia GT2 Ferrari F136F 4.5 L V8 11   Tetsuya Tanaka D All
  Katsuyuki Hiranaka All
  Team SG Changi Lexus Lexus IS350 Lexus RV8J 3.4 L V8 14   Ryo Orime Y All
  Alexandre Imperatori 1–2, 4–8
  Tsubasa Abe 3
  Naoya Yamano NC
  Team Art Taste Porsche Porsche 911 GT3 R Porsche M97/79 4.0 L F6 15   Tim Bergmeister Y 5–8, NC
  Yasuhiro Shimizu 5–8, NC
  R'Qs Motorsports Vemac Vemac RD350R Zytek ZV348 4.0 L V8 22   Hisashi Wada Y 1–5, 7, NC
  Masaki Jyonai 1–5, 7, NC
  Team Tsuchiya Porsche Porsche 997 GT3-RSR Porsche M97/81 4.0 L F6 25   Takeshi Tsuchiya Y 1–8
  Akihiro Tsuzuki 1–8
  Team Taisan Porsche Porsche 996 GT3 Porsche M96/77 3.6 L F6 26   Kyosuke Mineo Y 1–7, NC
  Hideshi Matsuda 1–3, 6, 8, NC
  Junichiro Yamashita 4–5, 7–8
  Shogo Mitsuyama 5
Ferrari Ferrari F430 GT2 Ferrari F136GT 4.3 L V8 41   Shinichi Yamaji 1–2, 4–6, 8, NC
  Hiroshi Koizumi 1–2, 4–6
  Kyosuke Mineo 8
  Junichiro Yamashita NC
  LMP Motorsport Ferrari Ferrari F430 GT2 Ferrari F136GT 4.3 L V8 27   Yutaka Yamagishi Y All
  Hideki Yamauchi 1–6, NC
  Carlo van Dam 7–8
  apr Toyota Toyota Corolla Axio apr GT Toyota 2GR-FSE 3.5 L V6 31   Koki Saga Y All
  Yuki Iwasaki All
74   Morio Nitta All
  Yuji Kunimoto All
  Hankook KTR Porsche Porsche 911 GT3 R Porsche M97/79 4.0 L F6 33   Masami Kageyama H All
  Tomonobu Fujii All
Porsche 997 GT3 RS Porsche M97/81 4.0 L F6 34   Hiroshi Takamori 1–2, 5–6
  Michael Kim 1–2, 5–6
  Naoya Gamou 2, 5
  Autobacs Racing Team Aguri ASL ASL ARTA Garaiya Nissan VQ35DE 3.5 L V6 43   Shinichi Takagi B All
  Kosuke Matsuura All
  R&D Sport Subaru Subaru Legacy B4 Subaru EJ20 2.0 L Turbo F4 62   Kota Sasaki Y All
  Tetsuya Yamano All
  A speed Aston Martin Aston Martin V8 Vantage GT2 Aston Martin AJ37 4.7 L V8 66   Hiroki Yoshimoto Y All
  Kazuki Hoshino All
  ThunderAsia Racing Mosler Mosler MT900M Judd XV675 3.5 L V8 69   Hiroki Yoshida Y 1–8
  Melvin Choo 1–3, 5–8
  Naoki Yokomizo 4–5
  JLOC Lamborghini Lamborghini Gallardo RG-3 Lamborghini 07L1 5.2 L V10 86   Takayuki Aoki Y All
  Yuya Sakamoto All
87   Manabu Orido All
  Atsushi Yogo All
88   Hiroyuki Iiri All
  Yuhi Sekiguchi All
  Tomei Sports Callaway Callaway Corvette Z06.R GT3 Callaway LS7.R 7.0 L V8 360   Atsushi Tanaka Y 1–2, 4, 7
  Kazuyoshi Okamura 1–2, 4
  Masahiro Matsunaga 7

Team Movements

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GT500

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GT300

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  • RE Amemiya, a regular GT300 entrant in the class since the 1995 JGTC season, has withdrawn from the series completely. While 2008 and 2009 GT300 Champion Team MOLA and Racing Project Bandoh both moved up to the GT500 class respectively. 2010 GT300 Champion Hasemi Motorsport also withdrawn the series in early April. Making both Nissan and Mazda car absent in the GT300 lineup this year, for the first time since 1995.
  • Jim Gainer Team, which was using the Ferrari F430 in the 2010 season, switched 1 of their 2 cars to a Ferrari F458 GTC. Ferrari stated they are not likely to supply F458's to any of the Super GT teams. Team Mach also showed interest in using an F458 this season but due to the reason above, the plan was not implemented and they had to drive with a Vemac.
  • Studie, which used a BMW Z4 (E86) in the 2008 and 2009 seasons, returned to the series with a BMW Z4 GT3, previously the #76 car used by Schubert Motorsport (Team Need for Speed) in the 2010 FIA GT3 European Championship season. They have hired former F1 driver Ukyo Katayama as their sporting director and former RE Amemiya driver Nobuteru Taniguchi as their driver.
  • Team COX left the series after just one season in the series. Goodsmile Racing would later merge with Studie, bringing Taku Bamba to the team as well.
  • Chevrolet cars, which previously appeared in Super GT in the 2007 season also returned to the series, with Tomei Sports replacing their 996 type Porsche 911 GT3 with a Corvette Z06-R.
  • Porsche supplied two new 2010 specification Porsche 911 GT3Rs to Direction Racing and Team Art Taste, the latter team, which was a regular entrant of Super Taikyu series, also marked their debut season in Super GT. The 2010 specification Porsche 911 GT3R which was used by Team COX last season was given to the Hankook KTR team.
  • Team SG Changi, which uses a Lexus IS350 with former RE Amemiya driver Ryo Orime and Alexandre Imperatori is participating in the series for the first time.
  • Kazuki Hoshino, the driver's Champion of GT300 last year, moved from Hasemi Motorsport to A Speed (using an Aston Martin V8 Vantage GT2), replacing Hideshi Matsuda. Hasemi Motorsport was later to announce their withdrawal from the series.

Calendar

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Round Circuit Date Pole Position GT500 Winner GT300 Winner
2   Fuji Speedway1 1 May No. 39 Lexus Team SARD No. 23 Nismo No. 33 Hankook KTR
  Takuto Iguchi
  Hiroaki Ishiura
  Satoshi Motoyama
  Benoît Tréluyer
  Tomonobu Fujii
  Masami Kageyama
12   Okayama International Circuit 22 May No. 17 Keihin Real Racing No. 12 Team Impul No. 66 A speed
  Toshihiro Kaneishi
  Koudai Tsukakoshi
  Tsugio Matsuda
  João Paulo de Oliveira
  Kazuki Hoshino
  Hiroki Yoshimoto
3   Sepang International Circuit 19 June No. 1 Weider Honda Racing No. 1 Weider Honda Racing No. 4 GSR&Studie with TeamUKYO
  Loïc Duval
  Takashi Kogure
  Loïc Duval
  Takashi Kogure
  Taku Bamba
  Nobuteru Taniguchi
4   Sportsland SUGO 31 July No. 46 MOLA No. 46 MOLA No. 14 Team SG CHANGI
  Ronnie Quintarelli
  Masataka Yanagida
  Ronnie Quintarelli
  Masataka Yanagida
  Alexandre Imperatori
  Ryo Orime
53   Suzuka Circuit
Report
21 August No. 46 MOLA No. 1 Weider Honda Racing No. 62 R&D Sport
  Ronnie Quintarelli
  Masataka Yanagida
  Loïc Duval
  Takashi Kogure
  Tetsuya Yamano
  Kota Sasaki
6   Fuji Speedway 11 September No. 39 Lexus Team SARD No. 38 Lexus Team ZENT Cerumo No. 4 GSR&Studie with TeamUKYO
  Hiroaki Ishiura
  Takuto Iguchi
  Yuji Tachikawa
  Kohei Hirate
  Taku Bamba
  Nobuteru Taniguchi
7   Autopolis 2 October No. 39 Lexus Team SARD No. 23 Nismo No. 62 R&D Sport
  Hiroaki Ishiura
  Takuto Iguchi
  Satoshi Motoyama
  Benoît Tréluyer
  Tetsuya Yamano
  Kota Sasaki
8   Twin Ring Motegi 16 October No. 46 MOLA No. 23 Nismo No. 4 GSR&Studie with TeamUKYO
  Ronnie Quintarelli
  Masataka Yanagida
  Satoshi Motoyama
  Benoît Tréluyer
  Taku Bamba
  Nobuteru Taniguchi
NC   Fuji Speedway 12 November No. 46 MOLA No. 46 MOLA No. 4 GSR&Studie with TeamUKYO
  Ronnie Quintarelli   Ronnie Quintarelli   Nobuteru Taniguchi
13 November No. 46 MOLA No. 100 Team Kunimitsu No. 4 GSR&Studie with TeamUKYO
  Masataka Yanagida   Takuya Izawa   Taku Bamba

Notes:

  • ^1 – Race stopped early due to bad weather, full points awarded.
  • ^2 – The Okayama round was still considered Round 1.
  • ^3 – Race stopped early due to energy curfew, full points awarded.

Standings

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GT500 Drivers

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Scoring system
Position 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th
Points 20 15 11 8 6 5 4 3 2 1
Rank Driver OKA
 
FUJ
 
SEP
 
SUG
 
SUZ
 
FUJ
 
AUT
 
MOT
 
PTS
1   Masataka Yanagida
  Ronnie Quintarelli
6 10 2 1 2 7 2 2 90
2   Satoshi Motoyama
  Benoît Tréluyer
5 1 14 12 4 6 1 1 79
3   Takashi Kogure
  Loïc Duval
7 13 1 Ret 1 4 11 6 57
4   Toshihiro Kaneishi
  Koudai Tsukakoshi
3 8 3 6 12 3 6 7 50
5   Tsugio Matsuda
  João Paulo de Oliveira
1 14 15 13 3 2 10 9 49
6   Yuji Tachikawa
  Kohei Hirate
8 5 5 11 13 1 3 10 47
7   Hiroaki Ishiura
  Takuto Iguchi
13 6 13 2 5 8 15 3 40
8   André Lotterer
  Kazuki Nakajima
4 4 6 9 6 15 4 8 39
9   Takuya Izawa
  Naoki Yamamoto
2 12 7 7 Ret 5 14 4 37
10   Hironobu Yasuda
  Björn Wirdheim
9 7 4 4 10 11 5 12 29
11   Daisuke Ito
  Kazuya Oshima
11 2 8 5 8 10 13 15 28
12   Ryo Michigami
  Yuhki Nakayama
10 15 12 3 13 12 8 5 21
13   Seiji Ara
  Tatsuya Kataoka
15 3 11 8 11 13 7 11 18
14   Juichi Wakisaka
  Andre Couto
14 11 10 Ret 7 9 9 14 9
15   Hideki Mutoh
  Takashi Kobayashi
12 9 9 10 9 9 12 13 9
Rank Driver OKA
 
FUJ
 
SEP
 
SUG
 
SUZ
 
FUJ
 
AUT
 
MOT
 
PTS
Colour Result
Gold Winner
Silver Second place
Bronze Third place
Green Points finish
Blue Non-points finish
Non-classified finish (NC)
Purple Retired (Ret)
Red Did not qualify (DNQ)
Did not pre-qualify (DNPQ)
Black Disqualified (DSQ)
White Did not start (DNS)
Withdrew (WD)
Race cancelled (C)
Blank Did not practice (DNP)
Did not arrive (DNA)
Excluded (EX)

GT300 Drivers

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Scoring system
Position 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th
Points 20 15 11 8 6 5 4 3 2 1
Rank Driver OKA
 
FUJ
 
SEP
 
SUG
 
SUZ
 
FUJ
 
AUT
 
MOT
 
PTS
1   Nobuteru Taniguchi
  Taku Bamba
4 5 1 6 5 1 9 1 87
2   Tetsuya Tanaka
  Katsuyuki Hiranaka
2 2 2 7 4 22 2 3 83
3   Masami Kageyama
  Tomonobu Fujii
14 1 9 5 2 11 17 2 58
4   Tetsuya Yamano
  Kota Sasaki
8 18 8 Ret 1 6 1 6 56
5   Ryo Orime 15 16 Ret 1 8 2 3 Ret 49
6   Alexandre Imperatori 15 16 1 8 2 3 Ret 49
7   Yuji Kunimoto
  Morio Nitta
6 7 6 2 7 12 8 9 38
8   Kazuki Hoshino
  Hiroki Yoshimoto
1 Ret Ret 8 12 9 11 4 33
9   Takeshi Tsuchiya
  Akihiro Tsuzuki
Ret 3 Ret 4 9 5 5 19 33
10   Kazuho Takahashi
  Hiroki Katoh
7 Ret 10 13 6 3 4 8 32
11   Manabu Orido
  Atsushi Yogo
3 14 7 16 3 19 16 16 26
12   Shinichi Takagi
  Kosuke Matsuura
20 6 5 3 20 12 13 7 26
13   Yuhi Sekiguchi
  Hiroyuki Iiri
Ret 8 4 15 10 4 12 5 26
14   Yutaka Yamagishi 5 11 3 Ret 11 7 10 14 22
15   Hideki Yamauchi 5 11 3 Ret 11 7 21
16   Koki Saga
  Yuki Iwasaki
12 4 11 Ret 13 13 7 11 12
17   Takayuki Aoki
  Yuya Sakamoto
10 Ret 14 15 10 8 6 12 10
18   Shinichi Yamaji 9 9 12 17 21 Ret 4
19   Hiroshi Koizumi 9 9 12 17 21 4
20   Haruki Kurosawa 19 12 9 Ret 17 21 16 2
21   Katsuhiko Tsutsui 9 2
22   Hiroshi Takamori
  Michael Kim
17 10 Ret Ret 1
23   Yasuhiro Shimizu
  Tim Bergmeister
16 10 15 13 1
24   Carlo van Dam DNQ 14 Ret 16 10 14 1
25   Junichiro Yamashita 12 11 14 20 10 1
26   Hideshi Matsuda 11 12 13 15 10 1
Rank Driver OKA
 
FUJ
 
SEP
 
SUG
 
SUZ
 
FUJ
 
AUT
 
MOT
 
PTS
Colour Result
Gold Winner
Silver Second place
Bronze Third place
Green Points finish
Blue Non-points finish
Non-classified finish (NC)
Purple Retired (Ret)
Red Did not qualify (DNQ)
Did not pre-qualify (DNPQ)
Black Disqualified (DSQ)
White Did not start (DNS)
Withdrew (WD)
Race cancelled (C)
Blank Did not practice (DNP)
Did not arrive (DNA)
Excluded (EX)

References

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  1. ^ "8 rounds for 2011 SUPER GT season, Autopolis back in the calendar!". supergt.net. Super GT. 2010-08-08. Retrieved 2011-02-02.[permanent dead link]
  2. ^ a b "Super GT Okayama will be held in 21–22 May". as-web.jp. i-dea. 2010-03-24. Retrieved 2011-03-24.
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