Japanese Grand Touring Championship
 |
|
| Category | Gran Turismo |
|---|---|
| Country |
 Japan Thailand |
| Inaugural season | 1993 |
| Teams | 15 (GT500) 25 (GT300) (total: 40) |
| Drivers' champion | GT500: Heikki Kovalainen Kohei HirateGT300: Takeshi Tsuchiya Takamitsu Matsui
|
| Teams' champion | GT500: Lexus Team SARD GT300: VivaC team Tsuchiya |
| Makes' champion | GT500: Lexus GT300: Toyota |
| Official website | Super GT.net |
 Current season
|
|
Super GT (stylized as SUPER GT) is a grand touring car racing series that began in 1993. Originally titled as the Zen Nihon GT Senshuken (全日本GT選手権), generally referred to as either the JGTC or the All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship, the series was renamed to Super GT in 2005. It is the top level of sports car racing in Japan.
The series is sanctioned by the Japan Automobile Federation (JAF) and run by the GT Association (GTA). Autobacs has served as the title sponsor of the series since 1998.
The JGTC (Japanese Grand Touring Championship) was established in 1993 by the Japan Automobile Federation (JAF) via its subsidiary company the GTA (GT Association), replacing the defunct All Japan Sports Prototype Championship for Group C cars and the Japanese Touring Car Championship for Group A touring cars, which instead would adopt the supertouring formula. Seeking to prevent the spiraling budgets and one-team/make domination of both series, JGTC imposed strict limits on power, and heavy weight penalties on race winners in an openly-stated objective to keep on-track action close with an emphasis on keeping fans happy.
In its first season, the JGTC grid mostly consisted of Japan Super Sport Sedan cars, with the only genuine JGTC cars being two Nismo-entered Nissan Skyline GT-Rs, which were in fact modified Group A cars. An exception was the first race of the season, which was also an exhibition race of the IMSA GT Championship, and therefore saw a contingent of GTS and GTU cars from the American series join the field. The 1000 km Suzuka also saw a greater variety of competitors, with Group C prototypes, Group N touring cars, and GT cars from Europe and IMSA all joining the field.
...
Wikipedia