1996 All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship
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.
Schedule[]
Round | 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[]
Round | Circuit | GT500 Winning Team | GT300 Winning Team |
---|---|---|---|
GT500 Winning Drivers | GT300 Winning Drivers | ||
1 | Suzuka Circuit | #60 Team Lark McLaren F1 GTR | #26 Team Taisan Jr Porsche 964 |
Naoki Hattori Ralf Schumacher |
Keiichi Suzuki | ||
2 | Mt. Fuji | #61 Team Lark McLaren F1 GTR | #910 910 Racing Porsche 993 |
David Brabham John Nielsen |
Seiichi Sodeyama Naoki Nagasaka | ||
3 | Sendai | #37 Castrol Cerumo Toyota Supra | #72 Makiguchi Engineering BMW M3 |
Hironori Takeuchi Érik Comas |
Takayuki Kinoshita | ||
4 | Mt. Fuji | #1 Calsonic Hoshino Racing GT-R | #910 910 Racing Porsche 993 |
Masahiko Kageyama Kazuyoshi Hoshino |
Seiichi Sodeyama Naoki Nagasaka | ||
5 | Sportsland SUGO | #60 Team Lark McLaren F1 GTR | #26 Team Taisan Jr Porsche 964 |
Naoki Hattori Ralf Schumacher |
Keiichi Suzuki | ||
6 | Mine Circuit | #60 Team Lark McLaren F1 GTR | #26 Team Taisan Jr Porsche 964 |
Naoki Hattori Ralf Schumacher |
Keiichi Suzuki | ||
NC | Central Circuit | #3 Hasemi Motorsports GT-R | #7 RE Amemiya Mazda RX-7 |
Masahiro Hasemi Tetsuya Tanaka |
Shinichi Yamaji |
Point Ranking[]
GT500 Class[]
Drivers[]
Rank | 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 | 1 | Ret | 15 | Ret | 1 | 1 | 60 | |
3 | 37 | Érik Comas | 16 | 4 | 1 | Ret | 4 | 2 | 2 | 55 |
4 | 1 | Masahiko Kageyama | 8 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 2 | Ret | 5 | 54 |
5 | 3 | Masahiro Hasemi | 3 | 6 | 2 | 14 | 6 | 5 | 1 | 47 |
6 | 2 | Aguri Suzuki | 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 | 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 | 9 | 9 | Ret | 12 | 12 | 6 | 8 | 10 |
16 | 55 | Kenji Tohira
|
11 | 10 | 11 | 6 | 9 | 9 | ||
17 | 100 | Kunimitsu Takahashi | Ret | 8 | 12 | 7 | 10 | 11 | 6 | 8 |
18 | 8 | Tatsuya Tanigawa | 10 | 13 | 6 | 7 | ||||
19 | 30 | 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
|
Ret | 12 | 13 | 8 | 13 | Ret | 3 | |
23 | 39 | Giampiero Simoni | 8 | 3 | ||||||
25 | 17 | Masami Kageyama | Ret | Ret | Ret | 9 | 2 | |||
26 | 5 | 13 | 14 | 10 | Ret | Ret | 12 | 1 | ||
26 | 5 | Tetsuya Ota | 13 | 14 | 10 | Ret | 12 | 1 | ||
26 | 16 | 10 | 11 | 1 | ||||||
26 | 15 | 16 | 0 | |||||||
16 | 10 | 1 | ||||||||
88 | Takao Wada | Ret | Ret | 11 | Ret | 13 | 0 | |||
88 | Ret | 11 | Ret | 13 | 0 | |||||
16 | Tarzan Yamada | 11 | 0 | |||||||
35 | Anthony Reid | 12 | 15 | 0 | ||||||
19 | Ret | 17 | 16 | 13 | Ret | 14 | 0 | |||
19 | Manabu Orido | 13 | 0 | |||||||
69 | 14 | 15 | 14 | 0 | ||||||
19 | Ret | 14 | 0 | |||||||
15 | 15 | 16 | Ret | 15 | Ret | 0 | ||||
15 | 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
|
Ret | 0 | |||||||
88 | Ret | 0 | ||||||||
36 | Ukyo Katayama | 4 | 0 | |||||||
39 | Olivier Grouillard |
7 | 0 | |||||||
30 | 9 | 0 |
GT300 Class (Top 5)[]
Drivers[]
Rank | Drivers | Number/Team | Points | Wins |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Keiichi Suzuki |
#26 Team Taisan Jr Porsche 964 | 90 | 3 |
2 | Seiichi Sodeyama | #910 910 Racing Porsche 993 | 65 | 2 |
3 | Takayuki Kinoshita |
#72 Makiguchi Engineering BMW M3 | 53 | 1 |
4 | Naoki Nagasaka | #910 910 Racing Porsche 993 | 50 | 2 |
5 | Katsunori Iketani |
#31 Cobra Racing Team Porsche 993 | 46 | 0 |
External links[]
- Super GT/JGTC official race archive (in Japanese)
- 1996 season results
- Super GT seasons
- 1996 in Japanese motorsport