1998 All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship

The 1998 All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship was the sixth season of Japan Automobile Federation GT premiere racing. It was marked as well as the sixteenth season of a JAF-sanctioned sports car racing championship dating back to the All Japan Sports Prototype Championship. The GT500 class champion was the #23 Pennzoil NISMO Nissan Skyline GT-R driven by Érik Comas and Masami Kageyama, and the GT300 class champion was the #25 Team Taisan Jr with Tsuchiya MR2 driven by Keiichi Suzuki and Shingo Tachi, who won a record five championship races, plus the post-season all-star race, giving them a total of six wins in 1998.

The season was marred by a horrific crash at the All Japan Fuji GT Race on May 3, 1998, when Ferrari Club of Japan driver Tetsuya Ota lost control of his Ferrari F355 in heavy rain and fog, and crashed into the stationary Porsche 911 of Jukuchou (Tomohiko) Sunako. Ota's car erupted into flames upon impact, and fellow racer Shinichi Yamaji rushed to extinguish the fire. Ota suffered severe burns and nerve damage that would force him to retire from full-time racing. Sunako suffered a broken leg, but would continue to race in the series later on.

1998 also saw the first GT500 class victory for Honda, at the Japan Special GT Cup at Fuji Speedway.

Schedule[]

Round	Race	Circuit	Date
1	Suzuka GT 300	Suzuka Circuit	March 22
2	All Japan Fuji GT Race	Fuji Speedway	May 3
3	HiLand GT Championship	Sendai Hi-Land Raceway	June 28
4	Japan Special GT-Cup	Fuji Speedway	August 9
5	Motegi GT Championship Race	Twin Ring Motegi	September 13
6	CP Mine GT Race	Mine Circuit	October 11
7	SUGO GT Championship	Sportsland SUGO	October 25
NC	Nicos Cup GT Allstar Race	TI Circuit	November 15

Season results[]

Round	Circuit	GT500 Winning Team	GT300 Winning Team
Round	Circuit	GT500 Winning Drivers	GT300 Winning Drivers
1	Suzuka Circuit	#23 Pennzoil NISMO GT-R	#25 Team Taisan Jr with Tsuchiya MR-2
1	Suzuka Circuit	Masami Kageyama Érik Comas	Keiichi Suzuki Shingo Tachi
-	Mt. Fuji	Race abandoned because of crash at start and subsequent fog.^[1]
2	Sendai	#23 Pennzoil NISMO GT-R	#25 Team Taisan Jr with Tsuchiya MR-2
2	Sendai	Masami Kageyama Érik Comas	Keiichi Suzuki Shingo Tachi
3	Mt. Fuji	#64 Mobil 1 Nakajima Racing Honda NSX	#25 Team Taisan Jr with Tsuchiya MR-2
3	Mt. Fuji	Tom Coronel Koji Yamanishi	Keiichi Suzuki Shingo Tachi
4	Twin Ring Motegi	#16 Castrol Mugen Honda NSX	#77 Cusco Subaru Impreza
4	Twin Ring Motegi	Ryo Michigami Osamu Nakako
5	Mine Circuit	#100 Team Kunimitsu Honda NSX	#25 Team Taisan Jr with Tsuchiya MR-2
5	Mine Circuit	Kunimitsu Takahashi Akira Iida	Keiichi Suzuki Shingo Tachi
6	Sportsland SUGO	#16 Castrol Mugen Honda NSX	#25 Team Taisan Jr with Tsuchiya MR-2
6	Sportsland SUGO	Ryo Michigami Osamu Nakako	Keiichi Suzuki Shingo Tachi
NC	TI Circuit	#64 Mobil 1 Nakajima Racing Honda NSX	#25 Team Taisan Jr with Tsuchiya MR-2
NC	TI Circuit	Tom Coronel Koji Yamanishi	Keiichi Suzuki Shingo Tachi

Point Ranking[]

GT500[]

Drivers[]

Rank	No.	Driver	SUZ	FUJ	SEN	FUJ	MOT	MIN	SUG	TAI	Points
1	23	Masami Kageyama	1	6C	1	10	4	4	6	10	67
1	23	Érik Comas	1		1	10	4	4	6	10	67
2	64	Koji Yamanishi	2	1C		1	16Ret	2	19DNS	1	50
2	64	Tom Coronel	2	1C	19Ret	1	16Ret	2	19DNS	1	50
3	12	Kazuyoshi Hoshino	11		5	3	2	7	4	4	49
3	12	Takuya Kurosawa	11	10C	5	3	2	7	4	5	49
4	16	Osamu Nakako Ryo Michigami	17Ret	9C	18Ret	5	1	11	1	7	48
5	3	Masahiro Hasemi Tetsuya Tanaka	5	11C	14Ret	2	8	8	5	4	37
6	39	Keiichi Tsuchiya Tatsuya Tanigawa	3	15C	4	9	14Ret	3	14Ret	3	36
7	36	Masanori Sekiya Norberto Fontana	6	3C	3	8	3	16	15Ret	13Ret	33
8	2	Aguri Suzuki	18Ret		2	7	11	5	9	12Ret	29
8	2	Masahiko Kageyama	18Ret	5C	2	7	11	5	9	12Ret	29
9	37	Toshio Suzuki Kelvin Burt	7	7C	6	11	18Ret	10	2	6	26
10	100	Kunimitsu Takahashi Akira Iida	10	4C	12	19Ret	7	1	13Ret	2	25
11	38	Hironori Takeuchi Hideki Noda	9	12C	16Ret	21Ret	5	12	3	11Ret	22
12	50	Satoshi Motoyama	13		11	6	6	9	8	15Ret	17
12	50	Takeshi Tsuchiya	13	8C	11	6	6	9	8	15Ret	17
13	5	Marc Goossens	4	14C	7	20Ret	19Ret	18Ret	16Ret		14
14	5	Yasutaka Hinoi	4	14C	7						14
15	18	Katsutomo Kaneishi	20Ret	2C	17Ret	4	15Ret	15	21DSQ	14Ret	10
16	18	Katsumi Yamamoto	20Ret	2C	17Ret	4	15Ret				10
17	8	Wayne Gardner Minoru Tanaka	8	20C	10	12		19Ret	7		8
18	6	Pierre-Henri Raphanel	21Ret		13Ret	13	13Ret	6	20DNQ		6
18	6	Shinichi Takagi	21Ret	18C	13Ret	13	13Ret	6	20DNQ		6
19	30	Hideki Okada	12	13C	8	15	9	14	17Ret	9	5
20	88	Naohiro Furuya	19Ret	19C	9	18	10	13	11		3
21	55	Hideshi Matsuda	14	16C		14			10	8	1
22	55	Anthony Reid							10		1
24	55	Eiichi Tajima	14	16C							0
24	5	Eiichi Tajima				20Ret	19Ret	18Ret	16Ret		0
24	55					14					0
25	13	Mitsuhiro Kinoshita		17C	15Ret	16	12	17	12Ret		0
25	55	Mitsuhiro Kinoshita								8	0
26	13			17C	15Ret	16	12	17	12Ret		0
27	777	Takao Wada	15	21C		17	17Ret		18Ret		0
28	18	Juichi Wakisaka						15	21DSQ	14Ret	0
29	64				19Ret						0
30	2	Pedro de la Rosa		5C							0
31	23	Ralph Firman		6C							0
32	50			8C							0
33	12	Michael Krumm		10C							0
34	6	Anders Olofsson		18C							0
35	89			22C							0

GT300 Class (Top 5)[]

Drivers[]

Rank	Drivers	Number/Team	Points	Wins
1	Keiichi Suzuki Shingo Tachi	#25 Team Taisan Jr with Tsuchiya MR-2	106	5
2	Manabu Orido	#19 Racing Project Bandoh Toyota Celica	46	0
3		#44 MOMOCORSE A'PEX MR-2	45	0
4	Hiroki Kato	#21 Hitotsuyama Racing BMW M3	44	0
5	Akihiko Nakaya Takahiko Hara	#61 Team Taeivon Ralliart Mitsubishi FTO	37	0

References[]

^ "JGTC Fog Bank Ends 2nd Round of GTC". Archived from the original on 5 June 2011.

External links[]

Super GT/JGTC official race archive (in Japanese)
1998 season results

[1] "JGTC Fog Bank Ends 2nd Round of GTC". Archived from the original on 5 June 2011.

[1]

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