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 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.
Drivers and teams edit
GT500 edit
GT300 edit
Schedule edit
| 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 edit
Point Ranking edit
GT500 edit
Drivers edit
| Rank | No. | Driver | SUZ | FUJ | SEN | FUJ | MOT | MIN | SUG | TAI | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 23 | Masami Kageyama | 1 | C | 1 | 10 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 10 | 67 |
| 1 | 23 | Érik Comas | 1 | 1 | 10 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 10 | 67 | |
| 2 | 64 | Koji Yamanishi | 2 | C | 1 | Ret | 2 | DNS | 1 | 50 | |
| 2 | 64 | Tom Coronel | 2 | C | Ret | 1 | Ret | 2 | DNS | 1 | 50 |
| 3 | 12 | Kazuyoshi Hoshino | 11 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 7 | 4 | 4 | 49 | |
| 3 | 12 | Takuya Kurosawa | 11 | C | 5 | 3 | 2 | 7 | 4 | 5 | 49 |
| 4 | 16 | Osamu Nakako | Ret | C | Ret | 5 | 1 | 11 | 1 | 7 | 48 |
| 5 | 3 | Masahiro Hasemi | 5 | C | Ret | 2 | 8 | 8 | 5 | 4 | 37 |
| 6 | 39 | Keiichi Tsuchiya | 3 | C | 4 | 9 | Ret | 3 | Ret | 3 | 36 |
| 7 | 36 | Masanori Sekiya | 6 | C | 3 | 8 | 3 | 16 | Ret | Ret | 33 |
| 8 | 2 | Aguri Suzuki | Ret | 2 | 7 | 11 | 5 | 9 | Ret | 29 | |
| 8 | 2 | Masahiko Kageyama | Ret | C | 2 | 7 | 11 | 5 | 9 | Ret | 29 |
| 9 | 37 | Toshio Suzuki | 7 | C | 6 | 11 | Ret | 10 | 2 | 6 | 26 |
| 10 | 100 | Kunimitsu Takahashi | 10 | C | 12 | Ret | 7 | 1 | Ret | 2 | 25 |
| 11 | 38 | Hironori Takeuchi | 9 | C | Ret | Ret | 5 | 12 | 3 | Ret | 22 |
| 12 | 50 | Satoshi Motoyama | 13 | 11 | 6 | 6 | 9 | 8 | Ret | 17 | |
| 12 | 50 | Takeshi Tsuchiya | 13 | C | 11 | 6 | 6 | 9 | 8 | Ret | 17 |
| 13 | 5 | Marc Goossens | 4 | C | 7 | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | 14 | |
| 14 | 5 | Yasutaka Hinoi | 4 | C | 7 | 14 | |||||
| 15 | 18 | Katsutomo Kaneishi | Ret | C | Ret | 4 | Ret | 15 | DSQ | Ret | 10 |
| 16 | 18 | Katsumi Yamamoto | Ret | C | Ret | 4 | Ret | 10 | |||
| 17 | 8 | Wayne Gardner | 8 | C | 10 | 12 | Ret | 7 | 8 | ||
| 18 | 6 | Pierre-Henri Raphanel | Ret | Ret | 13 | Ret | 6 | DNQ | 6 | ||
| 18 | 6 | Shinichi Takagi | Ret | C | Ret | 13 | Ret | 6 | DNQ | 6 | |
| 19 | 30 | Yoji Yamada | 12 | C | 8 | 15 | 9 | 14 | Ret | 9 | 5 |
| 20 | 88 | Hisashi Wada | Ret | C | 9 | 18 | 10 | 13 | 11 | 3 | |
| 21 | 55 | Hideshi Matsuda | 14 | C | 14 | 10 | 8 | 1 | |||
| 22 | 55 | Anthony Reid | 10 | 1 | |||||||
| 55 | Eiichi Tajima | 14 | C | 0 | |||||||
| 5 | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | 0 | ||||||
| 55 | Fuminori Mizuno | 14 | 0 | ||||||||
| 13 | Mitsuhiro Kinoshita | C | Ret | 16 | 12 | 17 | Ret | 0 | |||
| 55 | 8 | 0 | |||||||||
| 13 | Mitsuo Fujimura | C | Ret | 16 | 12 | 17 | Ret | 0 | |||
| 777 | Takao Wada | 15 | C | 17 | Ret | Ret | 0 | ||||
| 18 | Juichi Wakisaka | 15 | DSQ | Ret | 0 | ||||||
| 64 | Koji Sato | Ret | 0 | ||||||||
| 2 | Pedro de la Rosa | C | 0 | ||||||||
| 23 | Ralph Firman | C | 0 | ||||||||
| 50 | Hiroki Katoh | C | 0 | ||||||||
| 12 | Michael Krumm | C | 0 | ||||||||
| 6 | Anders Olofsson | C | 0 | ||||||||
| 89 | Kenji Kawagoe | C | 0 |
GT300 Class (Top 5) edit
Drivers edit
| 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 | Morio Nitta
|
#44 MOMOCORSE A'PEX MR-2 | 45 | 0 |
| 4 | Hiroki Katoh
|
#21 Hitotsuyama Racing BMW M3 | 44 | 0 |
| 5 | Akihiko Nakaya Takahiko Hara
|
#61 Team Taeivon Ralliart Mitsubishi FTO | 37 | 0 |
References edit
- ^ "JGTC Fog Bank Ends 2nd Round of GTC". Archived from the original on 5 June 2011.
External links edit
- Super GT/JGTC official race archive (in Japanese)
- 1998 season results