2003 All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship

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.

2003 All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship
Previous: 2002 Next: 2004

The 2003 season saw the introduction of the most comprehensive overhaul of the series' vehicle regulations in the series' history to date.[1][2] Manufacturers could now cut away the production vehicle's mainframe and replace the front and rear structures with pipe frame structures, which had also allowed for further suspension development.[2] The engine could now be mounted freely in any position or any orientation, and the transmission could now be mounted freely in any position, allowing for the introduction of transaxle units.[2] The size of the rear diffuser was reduced, and the underbody of the car had to be fitted with a flat bottom floor.[2]

Toyota had fitted their GT500 Supra with a 5.2 litre version of the naturally-aspirated 3UZ-FE V8 engine to replace the four-cylinder 3S-GTE. Honda retained the 3.5 litre C32B V6 engine, which was now mounted longitudinally behind the cockpit.[2] Nissan changed from the RB26DETT inline-six cylinder engine to the VQ30DETT V6 engine in the middle of 2002, and retained the lighter aluminium-block engine into 2003.

Drivers and teams

GT500

Team Make Car No. Drivers Tyre Rounds
Esso Toyota Team LeMans Toyota Toyota Supra 1 Akira Iida B All
Juichi Wakisaka All
Autobacs Racing Team Aguri Honda Honda NSX 8 Keiichi Tsuchiya B All
Toshihiro Kaneishi 1–3, 5–8
Katsutomo Kaneishi 4
Calsonic Team Impul Nissan Nissan Skyline GT-R 12 Yuji Ide B All
Benoît Tréluyer All
G'Zox Mugen
G'Zox Dome Racing Team
Honda Honda NSX 16 Tom Coronel B All
Daisuke Ito All
Takata Dome Racing Team Honda Honda NSX 18 Ryo Michigami B All
Sébastien Philippe 1–6, 8
Paolo Montin 7
Nismo Nissan Nissan Skyline GT-R 22 Masami Kageyama B All
Richard Lyons All
23 Michael Krumm All
Satoshi Motoyama All
Team Advan Tsuchiya Toyota Toyota Supra 25 Jérémie Dufour Y All
Seiji Ara 1, 3–8
Hideki Noda 2
Project Mu Kraft Toyota Toyota Supra 35 Naoki Hattori D All
Shigekazu Wakisaka All
Toyota Team TOM'S Toyota Toyota Supra 36 Érik Comas B All
Takeshi Tsuchiya All
37 Marco Apicella All
Takuya Kurosawa All
au Toyota Team Cerumo Toyota Toyota Supra 38 Yuji Tachikawa B All
Hironori Takeuchi All
Denso Toyota Team SARD Toyota Toyota Supra 39 Manabu Orido B All
Dominik Schwager All
R&D Sport Vemac Vemac RD350R 62 Shogo Mitsuyama D 2–6, 8
Shinsuke Shibahara 2–6, 8
Mobil 1 Nakajima Racing Honda Honda NSX 64 Tsugio Matsuda B All
Takashi Kogure 1–3
André Lotterer 4–8
Hitotsuyama Racing McLaren McLaren F1 GTR 76 Eiichi Tajima D All
Yudai Igarashi 1–3
Haruki Kurosawa 4–5
Go Shimizu 6–8
JLOC Lamborghini Lamborghini Diablo 88 Hisashi Wada Y All
Naohiro Furuya 1–3
Koji Yamanishi 4–8
Raybrig Team Kunimitsu with Mooncraft Honda Honda NSX 100 Hiroki Katoh B All
Hidetoshi Mitsusada All

Schedule

Round Race Circuit Date
1 GT Championship in TI TI Circuit March 30
2 All Japan GT Fuji 500 Fuji Speedway May 4
3 SUGO GT Championship Sportsland SUGO May 25
4 Malaysian JGTC in Fuji Speedway Fuji Speedway July 13
5 Japan Special GT Cup Fuji Speedway August 3
6 Motegi GT Championship Race Twin Ring Motegi September 14
7 Japan GT in Kyushu 300 km Autopolis October 26
8 Suzuka GT 300 km Suzuka Circuit November 16
  • Due to the SARS outbreak, round 4 of the championship, which was planned to be held at the Sepang Circuit on June 20 and 21, was cancelled and later replaced by a round at Fuji Speedway.[3]

Season results

Round Circuit GT500 Winning Team GT300 Winning Team
GT500 Winning Drivers GT300 Winning Drivers
1 TI Circuit #1 ESSO Team LeMans Toyota Supra #24 Advan Team Taisan Porsche 996
Juichi Wakisaka
Akira Iida
Atsushi Yogo
Akihiro Asai
2 Mt. Fuji #22 Motul NISMO Nissan Skyline GT-R #26 Advan Team Taisan Porsche 996
Richard Lyons
Masami Kageyama
Shinichi Yamaji
Kazuyuki Nishizawa
3 Sportsland SUGO #1 ESSO Team LeMans Toyota Supra #31 Team Reckless Toyota MR-S
Juichi Wakisaka
Akira Iida
Kota Sasaki
Satoshi Goto
4 Mt. Fuji #12 Calsonic Impul Nissan Skyline GT-R #3 Hasemi Motorsports Nissan Fairlady Z
Yuji Ide Masataka Yanagida
#12 Calsonic Impul Nissan Skyline GT-R #11 Team Gainer Ferrari F360
Benoît Tréluyer Tetsuya Tanaka
5 Mt. Fuji #18 Takata Dome Honda NSX #19 WedsSport Toyota Celica
Ryo Michigami
Sebastien Philippe
Takayuki Aoki
Minoru Tanaka
6 Twin Ring Motegi #16 G-ZOX Dome Honda NSX #71 Sigmatech Toyota Celica
Tom Coronel
Daisuke Ito
Tatsuya Kataoka
Keita Sawa
7 Autopolis #39 Denso Team SARD Toyota Supra #71 Sigmatech Toyota Celica
Manabu Orido
Dominik Schwager
Tatsuya Kataoka
Keita Sawa
8 Suzuka Circuit #12 Calsonic Impul Nissan Skyline GT-R #19 WedsSport Toyota Celica
Yuji Ide
Benoît Tréluyer
Takayuki Aoki
Minoru Tanaka

Standings

GT500 Drivers

Scoring system
Position1st2nd3rd4th5th6th7th8th9th10th
Points20151210864321
Qualifying111
Fastest Lap111
Rank Driver TAI
FUJ
SUG
FUJ
FUJ
MOT
AUT
SUZ
PTS
1 Satoshi Motoyama
Michael Krumm
2 4 3 5 2 11 5 3 86
2 Akira Iida
Juichi Wakisaka
1 12 1 6 4 4 4 7 83
3 Masami Kageyama
Richard Lyons
8 1 5 2 11 13 6 4 65
4 Benoît Tréluyer
Yuji Ide
12 2 Ret 1 16 6 11 1 64
5 Érik Comas
Takeshi Tsuchiya
6 10 2 7 5 2 8 8 61
6 Manabu Orido
Dominik Schwager
14 3 14 3 7 7 1 9 57
7 Ryo Michigami 3 Ret 7 8 1 14 Ret 2 55
Sébastien Philippe
9 Hironori Takeuchi
Yuji Tachikawa
Ret DSQ 10 4 3 9 3 13 46
10 Tom Coronel
Daisuke Ito
4 Ret 9 12 8 1 10 11 38
11 Tsugio Matsuda 5 6 8 13 9 Ret 2 12 36
12 Hiroki Katoh
Hidetoshi Mitsusada
7 7 16 17 13 5 9 5 27
13 Jérémie Dufour 10 Ret 4 14 17 3 12 Ret 35
Seiji Ara
15 Naoki Hattori
Shigekazu Wakisaka
9 5 6 10 10 12 7 10 24
16 André Lotterer 13 9 Ret 2 12 19
17 Takashi Kogure 5 6 8 17
18 Marco Apicella
Takuya Kurosawa
Ret 8 13 15 6 10 13 14 15
19 Keiichi Tsuchiya 11 Ret 11 11 12 8 Ret 6 9
Toshihiro Kaneishi
20 Eiichi Tajima 13 9 12 18 14 Ret DNP 15 2
Yudai Igarashi
20 Shogo Mitsuyama
Shinsuke Shibahara
11 15 9 Ret Ret 16 2
Katsutomo Kaneishi 11 0
Haruki Kurosawa 18 14 0
Hisashi Wada 15 Ret Ret 16 15 15 Ret Ret 0
Koji Yamanishi 16 15 15 Ret Ret 0
Naohiro Furuya 15 Ret Ret 0
Go Shimizu Ret DNP 15 0
Hideki Noda Ret 0
Paolo Montin Ret 0
Rank Driver TAI
FUJ
SUG
FUJ
FUJ
MOT
AUT
SUZ
PTS
ColourResult
GoldWinner
Silver2nd place
Bronze3rd place
GreenPoints finish
BlueNon-points finish
Non-classified finish (NC)
PurpleRetired (Ret)
RedDid not qualify (DNQ)
Did not pre-qualify (DNPQ)
BlackDisqualified (DSQ)
WhiteDid not start (DNS)
Withdrew (WD)
Race cancelled (C)
Blank Did not participate (DNP)
Did not arrive (DNA)
Excluded (EX)

Drivers

Rank Drivers Number/Team Points Wins
1 Masataka Yanagida
Mitsuhiro Kinoshita
#3 Hasemi Motorsports Nissan Fairlady Z 77 0
2 Keita Sawa #71 Sigmatech Toyota Celica 72 2
3 Shinichi Yamaji
Kazuyuki Nishizawa
#26 Advan Team Taisan Porsche 996 72 1
4 Takayuki Aoki
Minoru Tanaka
#19 WedsSport Toyota Celica 63 2
5 Kota Sasaki
Satoshi Goto
#31 Team Reckless Toyota MR-S 61 1

References

  1. "JGTC.net - 2001 GT INSIDE REPORT". supergt.net. Retrieved 2020-12-04.
  2. "JGTC.net | SPECIAL REPORT 2003 Vol.1". supergt.net. Retrieved 2020-12-04.
  3. "2003 AUTOBACS JGTC Round 4 cancelled". Archived from the original on 10 February 2004.
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