Fuji 1000km race in 1999

Nissan R391 , winning car from Érik Comas , Satoshi Motoyama and Masami Kageyama

The last race of the Toyota GT-One took place in the 1000 km race

The 1999 Fuji 1000 km race , also Le Mans Fuji 1000 Kilometres, Fuji Speedway , took place on September 7th of this year at Fuji Speedway . The race was not part of any racing series.

The race

In the 1990s, Japanese automobile manufacturers were among the regular starters in the Le Mans 24-hour race through their motorsport departments . After the success of Mazda with the 787B and the drivers Volker Weidler , Johnny Herbert and Bertrand Gachot in 1991 , Nissan and Toyota came to Le Mans in the following years .

The Fuji 1000 km race was considered a test run for a possible sports car racing series in Japan and Asia . At the end of 1998, the American entrepreneur and race organizer Don Panoz launched the American Le Mans Series , which had its first season in 1999. The Petit Le Mans 1998 was also held as a test race for a new series, had a large number of participants and was considered a success. The Fuji 1000 km race was organized in close cooperation with the Automobile Club de l'Ouest , the organizer of the Le Mans 24 Hours. In addition to racing classes from the Japanese Super GT , vehicles from the Le Mans racing classes LMP, LMGTP, GTS and GT were eligible to start. The respective ACO class winners were to receive an automatic invitation to the Le Mans 2000 24 hour race . The reports for the race, however, fell far short of the organizers' expectations. BMW showed initial interest in the race, but the V12 LMR managed by Schnitzer Motorsport did not come to Asia. Both Nissan and Toyota ceased sports car activities at the end of the year. That was the main reason that no racing series was established after the 1000 km race, as there was no Japanese manufacturer for the LMP classes . It wasn't until 2006 that the Japan Le Mans Challenge, a sports car series based on the ACO regulations, was launched in Japan.

Nissan Motorsports International reported an R391 for Érik Comas , Satoshi Motoyama and Masami Kageyama . The former Ligier - and Larrousse - Formula 1 driver Comas has been the dominant Super GT driver for the past two years and has been a racing partner of Motoyama and Kageyama several times. The last race of the Toyota GT-One , on the entry list as Toyota TS020, was contested by Ukyō Katayama , Toshio Suzuki and Keiichi Tsuchiya . The Japanese trio had finished second overall in the 24-hour race of Le Mans behind Joachim Winkelhock , Pierluigi Martini and Yannick Dalmas in a BMW V12 LMR and fought a long duel with the Nissan team for overall victory. This was mainly due to the faster pit stops at Nissan, where the open Spyder lost significantly less time changing drivers than Toyota did with the closed GT-One. At the finish line, the Nissan team was one lap ahead of the GT-One. Third overall was the Goh team's BMW V12 LM . The car with chassis number 002/98 was the former Martini, Winkelhock and Johnny Cecotto emergency vehicle in Le Mans 1998 .

Results

Final ranking

Item	class	No.	team	driver	vehicle	Round
1	LMP	23	NISMO	Érik Comas Satoshi Motoyama Masami Kageyama	Nissan R391	228
2	LMGTP	1	Toyota Motorsports	Ukyō Katayama Toshio Suzuki Keiichi Tsuchiya	Toyota TS020	227
3	LMP	61	Team Goh Dome	Hiroki Katō Juichi Wakisaka	BMW V12 LM	222
4th	N-GT500	35	Matsumotokiyoshi Team Tom's	Pierre-Henri Raphanel Shinichi Yamaji Takeshi Tsuchiya	Toyota Supra JZA80	211
5	N-GT500	6th	Team Le Mans	Hideki Noda Wayne Gardner	Toyota Supra JZA80	209
6th	N-GT500	32	cdma One Toyota Team Cerumo With Key's	Takayuki Kinoshita Masahiko Kondō Hironori Takeuchi	Toyota Supra JZA80	208
7th	LMGTS	60	Team Goh Chemberlain Engineering	Seiji Ara Hideki Okada	Chrysler Viper GTS-R	203
8th	N-GT500	11	Endless Sports	Takao Wada Mitsuhiro Kinoshita Yasushi Kikuchi	Nissan Skyline GT-R	200
9	LMGTS	16	Freising Motorsport	Yukihiro Hane Ernst Palmberger	Porsche 911 GT2	198
10	LMGT	81	Team Taisan Advan	Hideshi Matsuda Dominik Schwager	Porsche 996 GT3-R	197
11	LMGTS	69	Proton Competition	Gerold Ried Christian Ried Manfred Jurasz	Porsche 911 GT2	185
12	LMGTS	15th	Freising Motorsport	Wolfgang Kaufmann Bob Wollek	Porsche 911 GT2	180
13	N-GT300	91	910 Racing	Masamitsu Ishihara Kiichi Takahashi Tomohiko Sunako	Porsche 993 Carrera RSR	178
14th	LMGT	65	Roock Sport System Japan	Manabu Orido Takashi Suzuki Tomiko Yoshikawa	Porsche 993 Carrera RSR	176
15th	LMGTS	17th	Freising Motorsport	Katsunori Iketani Hiroyuki Nodi	Porsche 911 GT2	167
Not classified
16	N-GT300	70	Team Gaikokuya	Yoshimi Ishibashi Patrick van Schoote Jun Harada	Porsche 911 GT2	157
17th	LMGT	80	Team Taisan Advan	Eiichi Tajima Hiroaki Suga Morio Nitta	Porsche 911 Carrera RSR	155
18th	N-GT500	28	Tomei Sports	Kazuyuki Nishizawa Takuya Kurosawa Peter Dumbreck	Porsche 993 RSR	115
Failed
19th	LMP	24	Autoexe Motorsports	Yōjirō Terada Franck Fréon Kaichi Satou	Autoexe LMP99	158
20th	LMGTP	21st	Hitotsuyama Racing	Akira Iida Yasushi Hitotsuyama Mikio Hitotsuyama	McLaren F1 GTR	147
21st	LMGTS	10	Ability motorsports	Hidehiko Asou Yasutaka Hinoi Atsushi Yogō	Porsche 911 GT2	74
22nd	LMGTS	56	Chamberlain Motorsport	Vincent Vosse Xavier Pompidou	Chrysler Viper GTS-R	40
23	LMGTS	64	Roock Sport System Japan	Stéphane Ortelli Hisashi Wada	Porsche 911 GT2	40

Only in the entry list

Here you will find teams, drivers and vehicles that were originally registered for the race but did not take part for a variety of reasons.

Item	class	No.	team	driver	chassis
24	LMGTS		Paul Belmondo Racing		Chrysler Viper GTS-R
25th	LMGTS		Roock Sport System		Porsche 911 GT2
26th	N-GT500		Toyota Team Cerumo		Toyota Supra JZA80
27	N-GT500		Toyota Team Tom's		Toyota Supra JZA80
28	N-GT300		Okura Rotary Racing		Mazda RX-7
29	LMGT		Freising Motorsport		Porsche 996 Supercup
30th	LMGTS		Seikel Motorsport		Seikel Motorsport
31	LMGTS		Paul Belmondo Racing		Chrysler Viper GTS-R
32	LMP		Pescarolo Promotion		Ferrari 333SP
33	LMP		BMW Motorsport		BMW V12 LMR
34	LMGTS		Seikel Motorsport		Porsche 911 GT2

Class winner

class	driver	driver	driver	vehicle	Placement in the overall ranking
LMP	Eric Comas	Satoshi Motoyama	Masami Kageyama	Nissan R391	Overall victory
LMGTP	Ukyō Katayama	Toshio Suzuki	Keiichi Tsuchiya	Toyota TS020	Rank 2
LMGTS	Seiji Ara	Hideki Okada		Chrysler Viper GTS-R	Rank 7
LMGT	Hideshi Matsuda	Dominik Schwager		Porsche 996 GT3-R	Rank 10
N-GT500	Pierre-Henri Raphanel	Shinichi Yamaji	Takeshi Tsuchiya	Toyota Supra JZA80	Rank 4
N-GT300	Masamitsu Ishihara	Kiichi Takahashi	Tomohiko Sunako	Porsche 993 Carrera RSR	Rank 13

Racing data

• Registered: 34
• Started: 23
• Valued: 15
• Race classes: 6
• Spectators: 32,600
• Race day weather: cold and dry
• Route length: 4,400 km
• Driving time of the winning team: 5:32: 56.125 hours
• Total laps of the winning team: 228
• Total distance of the winning team: 1003.200 km
• Winner's average: 180.792 km / h
• Pole position: Ukyō Katayama - Toyota TS020 (# 1) - 1: 16.349 = 207.468 km / h
• Fastest race lap: Ukyō Katayama - Toyota TS020 (# 1) - 1: 18.806 = 201,000 km / h
• Racing series: Did not count in any racing series

Web links

• Race results