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.

1998 All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship
Previous:	1997	Next:	1999

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

Round	Circuit	GT500 Winning Team	GT300 Winning Team
		GT500 Winning Drivers	GT300 Winning Drivers
1	Suzuka Circuit	#23 Pennzoil NISMO GT-R	#25 Team Taisan Jr with Tsuchiya MR-2
		Masami Kageyama Érik Comas	Keiichi Suzuki Shingo Tachi
-	Mt. Fuji	Race abandoned because of crash at start and subsequent fog.[1]
2	Sendai	#23 Pennzoil NISMO GT-R	#25 Team Taisan Jr with Tsuchiya MR-2
		Masami Kageyama Érik Comas	Keiichi Suzuki Shingo Tachi
3	Mt. Fuji	#64 Mobil 1 Nakajima Racing Honda NSX	#25 Team Taisan Jr with Tsuchiya MR-2
		Tom Coronel Koji Yamanishi	Keiichi Suzuki Shingo Tachi
4	Twin Ring Motegi	#16 Castrol Mugen Honda NSX	#77 Cusco Subaru Impreza
		Ryo Michigami Osamu Nakako	Katsuo Kobayashi Hideyuki Tamamoto
5	Mine Circuit	#100 Team Kunimitsu Honda NSX	#25 Team Taisan Jr with Tsuchiya MR-2
		Kunimitsu Takahashi Akira Iida	Keiichi Suzuki Shingo Tachi
6	Sportsland SUGO	#16 Castrol Mugen Honda NSX	#25 Team Taisan Jr with Tsuchiya MR-2
		Ryo Michigami Osamu Nakako	Keiichi Suzuki Shingo Tachi
NC	TI Circuit	#64 Mobil 1 Nakajima Racing Honda NSX	#25 Team Taisan Jr with Tsuchiya MR-2
		Tom Coronel Koji Yamanishi	Keiichi Suzuki Shingo Tachi

Point Ranking

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 Ryo Michigami	Ret	C	Ret	5	1	11	1	7	48
5	3	Masahiro Hasemi Tetsuya Tanaka	5	C	Ret	2	8	8	5	4	37
6	39	Sakai Tsuchiya Tatsuya Tanikawa	3	C	4	9	Ret	3	Ret	3	36
7	36	Masanori Sekiya Norberto Fontana	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 Kelvin Burt	7	C	6	11	Ret	10	2	6	26
10	100	Kunimitsu Takahashi Akira Iida	10	C	12	Ret	7	1	Ret	2	25
11	38	Hironori Takeuchi Hideki Noda	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 Minoru Tanaka	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 Hideki Okada	12	C	8	15	9	14	Ret	9	5
20	88	Hisashi Wada Naohiro Furuya	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 Masayoshi Sugiyama	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 Tonichi Kanamori		C							0

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

1. "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