1996 All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship
The 1996 All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship was the fourth season of Japan Automobile Federation GT premiere racing. It was marked as well as the fourteenth season of a JAF-sanctioned sports car racing championship dating back to the All Japan Sports Prototype Championship. The GT500 class champion was the #61 Team Lark McLaren F1 GTR driven by David Brabham and John Nielsen, and the GT300 class champion was the #26 Team Taisan Jr Porsche 964 driven by Keiichi Suzuki and Morio Nitta. For the 1996 season, the names of the two classes of the JGTC were changed to GT500 and GT300, replacing the previous GT1 and GT2 names from the 1994 and 1995 season. This season also mandated two-driver teams for all races. On November 17, the series held its first non-championship "All-Star Race" at Central Circuit. The arrival of the McLaren F1 GTRs, prepared by Team Goh, was the biggest story of the 1996 season. The number 60 McLaren of Naoki Hattori and Ralf Schumacher led a 1-2 finish at the season opening round at Suzuka. However, despite winning three races, Hattori and Schumacher also suffered three retirements, and were beaten to the title by their senior teammates, Brabham and Nielsen. Despite massive performance handicaps instituted by the GTA, the two McLaren F1 GTRs combined to win four of the six championship races, and won pole position and set fastest lap in all six. At odds with the GTA over further performance handicaps that were to be proposed, Team Goh withdrew from the series after the championship finale at Miné Circuit, and after an aborted attempt to return in 2006, they would not return to the series until 2019. The season also featured the debut of the Honda NSX in the series, although direct factory support would not appear until the following season; as such, the car entered by Team Kunimitsu was mostly mechanically identical to the 1995 24 Hours of Le Mans GT2 class winner.
Drivers and teams
GT500
GT300
Schedule
Round | Race | Circuit | Date |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Suzuka GT 300 | Japan Suzuka Circuit | March 31 |
2 | All Japan Fuji GT Race | Japan Fuji Speedway | May 4 |
3 | HiLand GT Championship | Japan Sendai Hi-Land Raceway | June 30 |
4 | Japan Special GT-Cup | Japan Fuji Speedway | August 11 |
5 | SUGO GT Championship | Japan Sportsland SUGO | October 6 |
6 | CP Mine GT Race | Japan Mine Circuit | October 27 |
NC | Nicos Cup GT Allstar Race | Japan Central Circuit | November 17 |
Season results
Point Ranking
GT500 Drivers' championship
GT500 Teams' standings
For teams that entered multiple cars, only the best result from each round counted towards the teams' championship.
Rank | Team | No. | SUZ Japan |
FUJ Japan |
SEN Japan |
FUJ Japan |
SUG Japan |
MIN Japan |
CEN Japan |
PTS |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Team Lark McLaren GTR | 60 | 1 | Ret | 15 | Ret | 1 | 1 | 98 | |
61 | 2 | 1 | 8 | 2 | Ret | 4 | ||||
2 | Toyota Castrol Team | 36 | 5 | 2 | 3 | Ret | 8 | Ret | 4 | 68 |
37 | 16 | 4 | 1 | Ret | 4 | 2 | 2 | |||
3 | Calsonic Team Impul | 1 | 8 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 2 | Ret | 5 | 54 |
4 | Nismo | 2 | 4 | Ret | 7 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 50 |
556 | 6 | Ret | 17 | 5 | 3 | 10 | 10 | |||
5 | Hasemi Motorsports | 3 | 3 | 6 | 2 | 14 | 6 | 5 | 1 | 47 |
6 | Toyota Team SARD | 39 | 17 | 3 | 4 | 9 | 7 | 8 | 7 | 31 |
7 | FET Racing Team | 8 | 10 | 13 | 6 | 4 | 14 | 7 | 21 | |
8 | Team Taisan Advan | 34 | 9 | 9 | Ret | 12 | 12 | 6 | 8 | 12 |
35 | 12 | 7 | Ret | DNS | 15 | Ret | ||||
9 | Limit Motor Sport | 55 | 11 | 10 | 11 | 6 | 9 | 9 | ||
10 | Team Kunimitsu | 100 | Ret | 8 | 12 | 7 | 10 | 11 | 6 | 8 |
11 | Team Take One | 30 | 7 | 11 | 9 | Ret | Ret | Ret | 9 | 6 |
12 | Team BMB Minijuke | 43 | Ret | 12 | 13 | 8 | 13 | Ret | 3 | |
13 | Bros Factory | 25 | Ret | Ret | Ret | 9 | WD | 2 | ||
14 | Taku Motor Sports | 5 | 13 | 14 | 10 | Ret | Ret | 12 | 1 | |
14 | Prova Motorsport | 15 | 15 | 16 | Ret | 15 | Ret | DNA | 1 | |
16 | 10 | 11 | Ret | |||||||
- | JLOC | 88 | Ret | Ret | 11 | Ret | 13 | 0 | ||
- | Kenji Kawagoe | 69 | 14 | 15 | 14 | DNA | 0 | |||
Rank | Team | No. | SUZ Japan |
FUJ Japan |
SEN Japan |
FUJ Japan |
SUG Japan |
MIN Japan |
CEN Japan |
PTS |
GT300 Drivers' championship
GT300 Teams' standings
For teams that entered multiple cars, only the best result from each round counted towards the teams' championship.
Rank | Team | No. | SUZ Japan |
FUJ Japan |
SEN Japan |
FUJ Japan |
SUG Japan |
MIN Japan |
CEN Japan |
PTS |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Team Taisan Jr. | 26 | 1 | 2 | Ret | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 93 |
28 | 12 | 4 | DNA | |||||||
38 | 9 | DNA | 8 | 12 | DNA | 8 | ||||
2 | 910 Racing | 910 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 2 | Ret | 2 | 65 | |
3 | Makiguchi Engineering | 72 | 3 | 4 | 1 | Ret | 10 | 4 | 53 | |
4 | Cobra Racing Team | 31 | 2 | 7 | Ret | Ret | 3 | 2 | 49 | |
51 | 11 | 6 | Ret | 10 | 8 | DNA | ||||
5 | imuraya Racing Team | 6 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 9 | 13 | 5 | 47 | |
6 | RE Amemiya Racing | 7 | Ret | 9 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 6 | 1 | 40 |
7 | Team Gaikokuya | 70 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | Ret | DNA | 4 | 32 |
8 | Hitotsuyama Racing | 21 | 8 | Ret | 6 | 6 | 7 | 3 | 31 | |
9 | AI Auto Racing | 20 | 6 | Ret | 4 | 11 | 9 | 18 | ||
10 | First Racing Team | 91 | 9 | 8 | 6 | 11 | 11 | |||
11 | Team Daishin | 95 | 7 | Ret | Ret | 15 | 15 | 10 | 5 | |
12 | Goldenbear Sportswear R.T. | 18 | 7 | Ret | 4 | |||||
13 | Sports Factory R.T. | 57 | 7 | 14 | 3 | |||||
14 | M Factory Racing | 11 | 8 | Ret | 14 | 3 | ||||
15 | Kageisen Racing Team | 17 | 10 | Ret | 11 | 9 | 3 | |||
- | Schloss Motorsport | 9 | 13 | 0 | ||||||
- | NAC West | 27 | 13 | 0 | ||||||
- | Eimei Auto | 14 | Ret | 0 | ||||||
- | Rank Up Tomei Sports | 50 | DNA | DNS | 0 | |||||
- | Hirano Motorsport | 24 | DNS | 0 | ||||||
- | Team Spirit | 76 | DNA | 0 | ||||||
Rank | Team | No. | SUZ Japan |
FUJ Japan |
SEN Japan |
FUJ Japan |
SUG Japan |
MIN Japan |
CEN Japan |
PTS |
Notes
- ↑ Nationality unknown
External links
- Super GT/JGTC official race archive (in Japanese)
- 1996 season results