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
Point Ranking
GT500
Drivers
| 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 | Sakai 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 Sakurai | 4 | C | 7 | 14 | |||||
| 15 | 18 | Katsutomo Kaneishi | Ret | C | Ret | 4 | Ret | 15 | DSQ | Ret | 10 |
| 16 | 18 | Katsuya 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 | Mizuno Fuminori | 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 Kato | C | 0 | ||||||||
| 12 | Michael Krumm | C | 0 | ||||||||
| 6 | Anders Olofsson | C | 0 | ||||||||
| 89 | Kenji Kawagoe | C | 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 | Morio Nitta
|
#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