The Suzuka 500 km, was the opening round of the 1987 All Japan Sports Prototype Championship was held at the Suzuka Circuit, on 12 April, in front of a crowd of approximately 18,000.[1]

Layout of the Suzuka International Racing Course (1987-2002)

Report edit

Entry edit

A total of 24 cars were entered for the event, across three classes ranging from Local Prototypes to Group C Prototypes.[2]

Qualifying edit

The pairing of Hideki Okada and Mike Thackwell took pole position for From A Racing, in their Porsche 962C ahead of the new partnership of Kazuyoshi Hoshino and Kenji Takahashi for Hoshino Racing, in their Nissan R87E, by just 0.42secs.[3]

Race edit

The race was held over 85 laps of the Suzuka circuit, a distance of 500 km (actual distance was 502.519 km). Hideki Okada and Mike Thackwell took the winner spoils for From A Racing, driving their Porsche 962C. The pair won in a time of 2hr 57:25.959mins., averaging a speed of 106.206 mph. Second place went to Kunimitsu Takahashi and Kenny Acheson in the Advan Alpha Nova’s Porsche 962C who finished just 2.775 seconds adrift. Also, the lead lap, was the third placed Toyota 87C of Geoff Lees and Alan Jones.[4]

Classification edit

Race Result edit

Class Winners are in Bold text.

Pos. No. Class Driver Entrant Car - Engine Time, Laps Reason Out
1st 27 C   Hideki Okada   Mike Thackwell From A Racing Porsche 962C 2hr 57:25.959
2nd 1 C   Kunimitsu Takahashi   Kenny Acheson Advan Alpha Nove Porsche 962C 2hr 57:28.734
3rd 36 C   Geoff Lees   Alan Jones Toyota Team TOM’s Toyota 87C 2hr 58:29.226
4th 16 C   Kris Nissen   Volker Weidler Leyton House Racing Team Porsche 962C 84
5th 202 C   Takashi Yorino   David Kennedy Mazdaspeed Mazda 757 84
6th 201 C   Yoshimi Katayama   Yojiro Terada Mazdaspeed Mazda 757 84
7th 2 C   Chiyomi Totani   Naoki Nagasaka Alpha Cubic Racing Team Porsche 962C 82
8th 32' C   Aguri Suzuki   Masahiro Hasemi Hasemi Motorsport Nissan R86V 80
9th 70 B   Seiichi Sodeyama   Syuuji Fujii Batsu Racing Team MCS Guppy-Mazda 75
10th 100 C   Vern Schuppan   Keiichi Suzuki Trust Racing Team Porsche 962C 75
11th 67 A   Yoshifumi Yamazaki   Masaki Oohashi West-Mazda 87S 74
12th 29 A   Norihiro Yamazaki   Kenji Mizuno Oscar-Mazda SK85 74
13th 48 A   Keiichi Mizutani   Motozou Fujikawa Oscar-Mazda SK85 73
14th 30 A   Isao Nakahira   Kenji Kuroki West-Mazda 87S 73
15th 6 A   Hideki Uemura   Yoshiyuki Ogura West-Mazda 85S 71
16th 38 C   Eje Elgh   Ross Cheever Dome Motorsport Dome Motorsport-Toyota 87C 71
17th 31 A   Nobuyoshi Horil   Hajime Kajiwara Horil Racing West-Mazda 83S II 71
18th 47 A   Seiji Imoto   Tadao Yamauchi Rev Racing Oscar-Mazda SK85 70
19th 35 A   Mitsutuka Hayakawa   Masatoshi Yamaguchi West-Mazda 83S II 70
20th 7 C   Osamu Nakako   Maurizio Sandro Sala Best House Racing Team LM-Toyota 07 63
DNF 50 C   Syuuroku Saski   Taku Akaike SARD SARD-Toyota MC87S 52 Driveshaft
DNF 8 C   Takao Wada   Anders Olofsson Person’s Racing Team Nissan R86V 31 Oil Leak
DNF 23 C   Kazuyoshi Hoshino   Kenji Takahashi Hoshino Racing Nissan R87E 17 Drivesharft
DNF 9 A   Souichirou Tanaka   Hiroaki Ishii Katayama Racing Oscar-Mazda SK85 15 Retire
DNS 37 C   Geoff Lees   Masanori Sekiya Toyota Team TOM’s TOM’s-Toyota 87C Withdrawn

[5]

References edit

  1. ^ "500 km Suzuka 1987 - Racing Sports Cars".
  2. ^ "500 km Suzuka 1987 - Entry List - Racing Sports Cars".
  3. ^ "500 km Suzuka 1987 - Grid - Racing Sports Cars".
  4. ^ "500 km Suzuka 1987 - Race Results - Racing Sports Cars".
  5. ^ "500 km Suzuka 1987 - Race Results - Racing Sports Cars".