Fuji 1000km race in 1999
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
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