All Japan Sports Car Endurance Series is Goh!

[Bentley03]

It's official! (Courtesy of DSC)

The championship will be run to ACO regulations (initially 2004 regs moving to current regs in two years time) for both LMP's and GT's.

Kazumichi Goh indicated in June that should the series come to fruition, it would be run on a 1000 kilometre race format.

There will be a delegation from Japan at the Istanbul LMES round to both start training their scrutineers and to sound out teams who may be willing to sell their cars at the end of the season.

Great news for endurance racing!!

[JAG]

'teams who may be willing to sell their cars at the end of the season'

That will bring a smile to team owners faces.

[Bentley03]

Originally Posted by JAG

'teams who may be willing to sell their cars at the end of the season'

That will bring a smile to team owners faces.

Parc Ferme could look more like a car boot sale!!

[RobertPrange]

the next step towards a World Le Mans Series?

[billnchristy]

Sorry to be the grumpy one, but I dont see how this series will really work. Are they going to be a support for Super GT? Run with super gt maybe?

I cant imagine more than 6 cars tops, though I may be wrong.

Unfortunately for us in the US it just means one more potentially cool series we wont see

[Foster]

Jim Garnier, Goh, and a bunch of others will show up.
I can see this as a series with just LMP1, and LMP2, run the day before of the Super GT series race, before it gets big.

This will be a great series to see Nissan, Toyota, Honda, and other Japanesse manufactor's to get their programs going. Heck Nissan's involement with Rollcentre this year may turn into something big next year. Proton spends a lot of money on racing, what about a LMP program?

All in all, I see this a great way to get new cars out, and prepare the world for a World Series of Endurance Racing.

[Graham Goodwin]

Originally Posted by billnchristy

Sorry to be the grumpy one, but I dont see how this series will really work. Are they going to be a support for Super GT? Run with super gt maybe?

I cant imagine more than 6 cars tops, though I may be wrong.

Unfortunately for us in the US it just means one more potentially cool series we wont see

Yeah just imagine 2 sportscar series in one country - one for tubeframed prototypes and the other not - Couldn't possibly work

[JAG]

I can't see a World Le Mans series anytime soon.

We're more likely to see the current LMES, ALMS, JLMS set-up. Teams from each series could always take in extra races if they so wish.

BTW, this new series will be for LMPs and ACO spec GTs, so the 550 and Lamborghinis from Super GT are likely to enter.

The problem with Super GT is that without factory backing you cannot be competitive in GT500.

So there are plenty good teams that compete in Super Taikyu and small protoype series in Japan.

The fact that a delegation will be looking for cars at the Istanbul LMES round suggests there is significant interest.

[cybersdorf]

Originally Posted by Graham Goodwin

Yeah just imagine 2 sportscar series in one country - one for tubeframed prototypes and the other not - Couldn't possibly work

Having said that, it isn't working terribly well in the States, is it. Still, SuperGT is too well-established for this to be an instant success. Maybe over time, though.

[jross427]

how long till ALMS switches to the Endurance format, and i see the Suzuka 1000km being maybe a Pre-slection for Le mans to the Winner if they race that race

[billnchristy]

Good one Graham, but pitting these cars against Super GT is like putting anything up against NASCAR here...

I wish them luck, it could make some really cool cars and maybe another Japanese LM winner...but it is a very small country.

[Silk Cut Jaguar]

I can't see SuperGT being a problem for this series, the Japanese love their racing and another series which allows them to see cars that they wouldn't otherwise can only be a good thing in the long run.

The LMPs are exotic, European and fast, exactly the kind of image that does well over there.

[JAG]

Originally Posted by billnchristy

Good one Graham, but pitting these cars against Super GT is like putting anything up against NASCAR here...

I wish them luck, it could make some really cool cars and maybe another Japanese LM winner...but it is a very small country.

.........with a car culture like no other.

They have Super GT and Formula Nippon, but there is room for another top level series.

Previously they had Japanease Group C, Formula Nippon AND Group A/Super touring cars.

This new series is not necessarily a Super GT rival, and you would think there is demand out there, otherwise it would not have got off the ground.

[billnchristy]

true...i really like the prospect it has for LM, if they let em in.

[Graham Goodwin]

I believe hat this could work well - And what's more the format would support two laudable and valuable purposes

1 - To attract more international racing efforts from the hugely important Japanese market and

2 - To provide another market for GT and sportscars - This alone could be massively significant in kickstarting Euro / US programmes, if only in the short-term by providing somewhere else that current (and soon to be ineligible) cars can race / be sold.

[The Badger]

This will open up the LMP1 market for sure . For example , Nissan could do a lot worse than buying Shorty's 2 Dallara's and joining that series as a toe in the water effort .

Maybe others like Toyota and Mazda will throw in a little factory support .

[Mal]

Additionally it provides a third major market for companies manufacturing ACO regs cars to sell their cars to, which should encourage more manufacturers / Constructors to build new cars

[Bentley03]

It's hard to gauge how much interest there is in Japan at this stage. How many teams are waiting in the wings with a desire to get involved?

Certainly the availability of prototypes with a two year shelf life readily available for sensible money shows astute timing on behalf of the organisers.

And the likes of Radical could find a lucrative market for their upcoming LMP2. Mr.Goh plans to run at least one Audi and has previously been linked to Radical, so there is already awareness of that marque in Japan.

Dome (with Mugen power) now have a 'home' championship where they can run and develop their cars. How many potential buyers may have already shown interest in their new car?

And then there's Nissan, Toyota, Honda, Mazda........!
Could this series kickstart a big money assault on Le Mans?

As Silk Cut Jaguar said, the Japanese love their motor racing. They also love Mr.Goh. His involvement could be the difference between success and failure.

I find this announcement incredibly exciting. It may lead to nothing, but then again........

[Dauer 962]

Originally Posted by Bentley03

And the likes of Radical could find a lucrative market for their upcoming LMP2. Mr.Goh plans to run at least one Audi and has previously been linked to Radical, so there is already awareness of that marque in Japan.

I have on my mind that Goh is the official importer of Lola in Japan. There were some rumors at Le Mans this year that he will return to LM 06 with a Lola LMP2 and than run a customer Audi R10 in 2007. Thus I think Lola will be more realistic than Radical.

[The Badger]

Originally Posted by Bentley03

I find this announcement incredibly exciting. It may lead to nothing, but then again........

Thats exactly what im thinking

[Bentley03]

Originally Posted by Dauer 962

I have on my mind that Goh is the official importer of Lola in Japan. There were some rumors at Le Mans this year that he will return to LM 06 with a Lola LMP2 and than run a customer Audi R10 in 2007. Thus I think Lola will be more realistic than Radical.

Do Radical have an official importer/distributor in Japan?

If not, could KG be lined up for that position, or would his relationship with Lola rule that out?

[Dauer 962]

Radical has only a distributor for whole Pacific region, located in Malaysia.

Cause of the KG relations with Lola, any relation with other LMP makers would be out of question IMO.

[Pete Fenelon]

A Japanese series (hopefully expanding into an Asia-Pacific one in time) makes sense at least from the prototype point of view, but I can't really see the GTs taking off given the rising profile of SuperGT in that region unless they're very carefully differentiated from the existing series.

The only way to have another successful GT series would be to really emphasise the endurance aspect, and have races longer than SuperGT - but since they're going for 1000km races rather than the 300km/500km the SuperGT boys do, it looks like this has been taken care of

[TheNewBob]

I think this can only be a good thing - stops perfectly raceable cars from becoming museum items, in the short term it allows some Euro/US teams to sell the cars they can't use and use the money to buy new generation cars. Can't see SuperGT being rivalled too much - altho how would their pace compare to LM prototypes?

Reckon adding something stylish like a 1000km with a finish in the dark (like they tried at Silverstone) would attract the Japanese fans in a different way? If they keep racing weekends on different dates, then I reckon SuperGT and this new series can get along fine.

[tblincoe]

An ACO-regs based series in what can only be described as the single most important auto manufacturing nation in the world can be nothing but a good thing. If anything it increases the visibility of ACO racing in Japan and therefore increases the chances that Japanese manufacturers will consider re-entering the ACO sportscar scene.