The 2009 Autobacs Super GT Series was the seventeenth season of the Japan Automobile Federation Super GT Championship including the All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship (JGTC) era and the fifth season as the Super GT series.
It marked as well as the twenty-seventh season of a JAF-sanctioned sports car racing championship dating back to the All Japan Sports Prototype Championship. The season opener on March 22, was moved to Okayama, due to the continued renovation of Suzuka in preparation for the 2009 Japanese Grand Prix. The season finale on November 8 also was moved to Motegi, instead of Fuji. Due to the worldwide economic crisis, race weekends were two days instead of three.
André Lotterer and Juichi Wakisaka claimed the GT500 title in the Petronas TOM'S Lexus SC430. The team also won their respective teams title. Manabu Orido and Tatsuya Kataoka won the GT300 title in the Racing Project Bandoh IS350 by three points from Nobuteru Taniguchi and Ryo Orime.
Originally the three makers agreed to unify engine specification to 3.4L V8 engines (the same configuration of Formula Nippon at the time). However, due to the aforementioned economic crisis, Nissan encountered difficulties to develop a suitable engine for their GT-R, and chose to bear a performance ballast while using the same engine as last year. Honda continued to use their mid-engine NSX with performance ballast as the regulations originally planned to mandate front-engine cars. This was also their last year in Super GT with the original NSX, as they announced they would use a new vehicle (the HSV-010) starting in the 2010 season. Honda returned with the NSX in 2014 following the unveiling of the second-generation concept car in 2014, later revised to be based on the production model in 2017; both of which ran midship engine layout until 2019 season.
Team Nova entered the series with a Le Mans spec Aston Martin DBR9. It was the first Aston Martin car to participate the series history (including JGTC), and also the first European and non-Honda/Nissan/Toyota car in GT500 since the 2006 season (a Maserati MC12 did participate the pre-season test in 2006 season but withdraw from the series later). The DBR9 only ran at the first round at Okayama and the two rounds at Fuji, and as of July 2020 is the last non-Japanese car to compete in GT500.
The apr Racing Team, which had used the Toyota MR-S for a long time decided to discontinue their use of MR-S, and for this season decided to replace it with a mid-engined Toyota Corolla Axio instead.
The Cusco, the only team using an AWD car (Subaru Impreza), left the series as they wanted to concentrate on off-road events. However, Subaru cars were not absent from the series as R&D Sport used a Legacy B4 for round 6, 7 and 9.
Thunder Asia Racing, a team from Singapore, entered round 4 at Sepang with a Mosler MT900R. Their full participation in 2010 season was confirmed after the 2009 season ended.
In order to combat sandbagging, where a team would intentionally perform poorly in order to secure a more favorable weight handicap, the success ballast formula was changed starting from this season: the ballast would be halved in the penultimate race and lifted altogether in final race for teams that participated in every round of the season. Teams missing only one round receive halved-ballast in the final race instead.
Round | Race | Circuit | Date |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Okayama GT 300 km | Okayama International Circuit | March 22 |
2 | Suzuka GT 300 km | Suzuka Circuit | April 19 |
3 | Fuji GT 400 km | Fuji Speedway | May 4 |
4 | Super GT International Series Malaysia | Sepang International Circuit | June 21 |
5 | SUGO GT 300 km | Sportsland SUGO | July 26 |
6 | Pokka GT Summer Special | Suzuka Circuit | August 23 |
7 | Fuji GT 300 km | Fuji Speedway | September 13 |
8 | Autopolis GT 300 km | Autopolis | October 18 |
9 | Motegi GT 250 km | Twin Ring Motegi | November 8 |
As a measure of cost reduction, the two longest race, as well as the final race in the series' distance in the series was shortened in this season. This included the trimming of the traditional 1000km race in Suzuka to 700 km. However, to avoid 1-pit strategy that caused unfairness to some teams, teams were required to pit twice in the Fuji 400 km race.
Position | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9th | 10th |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Points | 20 | 15 | 11 | 8 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
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Rank [1] [2] | Team | No. | OKA | SUZ | FUJ | SEP | SUG | SUZ | FUJ | AUT | MOT | Pts. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Lexus Team Petronas TOM'S | 36 | 11 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 112 |
2 | Autobacs Racing Team Aguri | 8 | 3 | 14 | 3 | 3 | 14 | 12 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 102 |
3 | Nismo | 1 | 13 | 11 | 1 | 8 | 1 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 14 | 101 |
4 | Team Yoshiki & Dome Project | 18 | 2 | 5 | 13 | 12 | 3 | 4 | 8 | 5 | 10 | 75 |
5 | KEIHIN Real Racing | 17 | 5 | 6 | 12 | 2 | 6 | 10 | 4 | Ret | 3 | 72 |
6 | Hasemi Motorsport | 3 | 12 | 13 | 7 | 1 | 9 | 2 | 6 | 8 | 12 | 71 |
7 | Kondo Racing | 24 | 1 | 8 | 4 | 5 | 13 | 11 | 13 | 3 | 11 | 69 |
8 | Lexus Team Kraft | 35 | 9 | 7 | 5 | 9 | 12 | 1 | 7 | 7 | 9 | 68 |
9 | Lexus Team ZENT Cerumo | 38 | 6 | 1 | 9 | 10 | 10 | 3 | 10 | 11 | 13 | 63 |
10 | Team Impul | 12 | 4 | 3 | 15 | 7 | 8 | 5 | 15 | Ret | 7 | 55 |
11 | Lexus Team LeMans ENEOS | 6 | 10 | 4 | 6 | 14 | 5 | Ret | 5 | 10 | 4 | 54 |
12 | Team Kunimitsu | 100 | 8 | 12 | 11 | 4 | 4 | 9 | 12 | 6 | 8 | 52 |
13 | Lexus Team SARD | 39 | 15 | 10 | 10 | 13 | 2 | 7 | 11 | 12 | 5 | 48 |
14 | Nakajima Racing | 32 | 7 | 9 | 8 | 11 | 11 | Ret | 9 | 9 | 6 | 39 |
15 | Team Nova | 21 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 3 | ||||||
Rank | Team | No. | OKA | SUZ | FUJ | SEP | SUG | SUZ | FUJ | AUT | MOT | Pts. |
Position | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9th | 10th |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Points | 20 | 15 | 11 | 8 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
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Super GT is a sports car racing series that began in 1993. Launched as the Zen Nihon GT Senshuken (全日本GT選手権), generally referred to as the All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship (JGTC), the series was renamed to Super GT in 2005. It is the top level of sports car racing in Japan.
Manabu "MAX" Orido is a Japanese professional racing driver.
The 2006 Autobacs Super GT Series was the fourteenth season of the Japan Automobile Federation Super GT Championship including the All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship (JGTC) era and the second season as the Super GT series. It was also the twenty-fourth season of a JAF-sanctioned sports car racing championship dating back to the All Japan Sports Prototype Championship. The season began on March 19 and ended on November 5, 2006, after 9 races.
Yuhi Sekiguchi is a Japanese racing driver. He currently competes in the GT500 class of the Super GT Series for TGR Team SARD.
The 2010 Autobacs Super GT Series was the eighteenth season of the Japan Automobile Federation Super GT Championship including the All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship (JGTC) era and the sixth season as the Super GT series. It also marked the twenty-eighth season of a JAF-sanctioned sports car racing championship dating back to the All Japan Sports Prototype Championship.
Team Kunimitsu is a racing team founded in 1992 by Kunimitsu Takahashi. The team has competed in the Super GT Series since 1994.
The 2012 Autobacs Super GT Series was the twentieth season of the Japan Automobile Federation Super GT Championship including the All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship (JGTC) era and the eighth season as the Super GT series. It also marked the thirtieth season of a JAF-sanctioned sports car racing championship dating back to the All Japan Sports Prototype Championship. The season began on April 1 and ended on November 18, 2012, after eight championship races and a non-championship race.
The 1997 All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship was the fifth season of the All-Japan GT Championship, now known as the Super GT Series, and the 15th season of top-level Japanese sports car racing dating back to the formation of the previous All-Japan Endurance/Sports Prototype Championship.
The 2002 All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship was the tenth season of Japan Automobile Federation GT premiere racing. It was marked as well as the twentieth season of a JAF-sanctioned sports car racing championship dating back to the All Japan Sports Prototype Championship. The GT500 class drivers' champions of 2002 were Juichi Wakisaka and Akira Iida driving the No. 6 Esso Team LeMans Toyota Supra, and the teams' champion was Honda team Mugen x Dome Project with their No. 16 Mugen NSX and No. 18 Takata Dome NSX. The GT300 class drivers' champions were the No. 31 ARTA with A'PEX Toyota MR-S driven by Morio Nitta and Shinichi Takagi.
The 2003 All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship was the eleventh season of Japan Automobile Federation GT premiere racing. It was marked as well as the twenty-first season of a JAF-sanctioned sports car racing championship dating back to the All Japan Sports Prototype Championship. The GT500 class champions of 2003 were the #23 Xanavi NISMO Nissan Skyline GT-R team driven by Satoshi Motoyama and Michael Krumm and the GT300 class champions were the #3 Hasemi Motorsports Nissan Fairlady Z driven by Masataka Yanagida and Mitsuhiro Kinoshita, neither of which had won a single race during the course of the season.
The 2004 All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship was the twelfth season of Japan Automobile Federation GT premiere racing and the final season under the name All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship as for 2005 the series was renamed to Super GT. It was marked as well as the twenty-second season of a JAF-sanctioned sports car racing championship dating back to the All Japan Sports Prototype Championship. The GT500 class champions of 2004 were the #1 Xanavi NISMO Nissan Fairlady Z team driven by Satoshi Motoyama and Richard Lyons and the GT300 class champions were the #16 M-TEC Honda NSX driven by Tetsuya Yamano and Hiroyuki Yagi.
The 2013 Fuji GT 300km was the sixth round of the 2013 Super GT season. It took place on September 8, 2013 at the Fuji Speedway in Oyama, Shizuoka, Japan.
The 2016 Autobacs Super GT Series was the twenty-fourth season of the Japan Automobile Federation Super GT Championship including the All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship (JGTC) era, and the twelfth season under the name Super GT. It was the thirty-fourth overall season of a national JAF sportscar championship dating back to the All Japan Sports Prototype Championship. The season began on April 10 and ended on November 13, after 8 races.
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The 2019 Autobacs Super GT Series was a motor racing championship based in Japan for grand touring cars. The series is sanctioned by the Japan Automobile Federation (JAF) and run by the GT Association (GTA). It was the twenty-seventh season of the Japan Automobile Federation Super GT Championship which includes the All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship (JGTC) era and the fifteenth season the series has competed under the Super GT name. It was the thirty-seventh overall season of a national JAF sportscar championship dating back to the All Japan Sports Prototype Championship. The season began on April 14 and ended on November 24, after 8 championship races & 2 non-championship races.
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Shinichi Takagi is a Japanese professional racing driver. He won the GT300 class Super GT championship in 2002 and 2019.
The 2022 Autobacs Super GT Series was a motor racing championship based in Japan for grand touring cars, sanctioned by the Japan Automobile Federation (JAF) and run by the GT Association (GTA). It was the thirtieth season of the JAF Super GT Championship which includes the All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship era, and the eighteenth season under the Super GT name. It was also the fortieth overall season of a national JAF sportscar championship dating back to the All Japan Endurance/Sports Prototype Championship.