2015.11.22

2015.11.22 42,000 spectator heats up TGRF! Puts the curtain down to the season in enjoyable atmosphere for the fans.

One week from the final round of 2015 AUTOBACS SUPER GT. A staple event of the offseason, "TOYOTA GAZOO Racing FESTIVAL 2015 (TGRF)," was held at Fuji Speedway on November 22. Despite cloudy weather, many fans had gathered at the circuit, and the number of spectator grew more than ten percent from last year reaching 42,000 people.

 

By setting "Event & Community where you can have fun with cars" as a major theme, this year's TGRF enhanced its already-popular contents even further and added a new facility, Girl's Park, filled with many contents such as Waku Doki! Driving, Car Flagrance Bar, etc. Event Square located behind the grandstand was named Enjoy Park and hosted TOYOTA GAZOO Racing EXHIBITION. Objective of being a theme park of automobile was certainly fulfilled with enriched offerings that even spanned to a special show presented by AKB48 Team 8.

 

 

 

Of course, it was the same as in the past years with SUPER GT being the main program with the highest popularity, and seven SUPER GT cars were brought in for the event, four RC F of GT500 with the Yuji Tachikawa / Hiroaki Ishiura duo topping the list (No.19 and No.36 cars were absent), two GT300 class cars, TOYOTA PRIUS apr GT and SYNTIUM LMcorsa RC F GT3, and SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT. Cars played pivotal roles in the events on the track, from the Welcome ceremony to SUPER GT vs SUPER FORMULA Special Battle and Circuit Safari, and when there is no event on the track the cars were displayed in the pit to appeal SUPER GT to many fans. Cars were back on the track on the home stretch for the grid walk from 4PM and farewelled the season with determination to recapture the title next season.

 

SUPER GT Driver Talk Show

 

Enjoy Park Stage in Event Square hosted Campaign Girl Stage the first in the morning, and then SUPER GT Driver Talk Show started from 10:40AM. Although No.19 and No.36 cars were absent and Yuhi Sekiguchi, who was participating in Macau GP, did not make appearance, Juichi Wakisaka and the Daisuke Ito / James Rossiter duo appeared on stage together with six GT300 drivers to start the session with a big group of 17 drivers. The show proceeded in a Q&A format with each driver holding O and X plates, and when the classic question of every year, "I will get the title! Yes or No" came out, James Rossiter showed X plate for some reason. "Because I always put up O but never got it (title), so I thought I should put X this time." Fans burst out in laughter to Rossiter's comment.

Akira Iida, who became a LEXUS driver in GT300, made appearance at TGRF after a long time, and, although not in a real battle, he reunited with Juichi Wakisaka to reform the popular duo. The venue was filled with loud laughter while Iida and Wakisaka shared their memories from old days.

 

SUPER GT vs. SUPER FORMULA Special Battle

 

Among many programs offered in TGRF, the special track program where SUPER GT and SUPER FORMULA cars run together at the same time, one and only such program in Japan, has always been well-received by the spectators, and this time also the event offered a session named SUPER GT vs SUPER FORMULA Special Battle. It was a mix-run session with seven SUPER GT cars, four GT500 and three GT300, and five SUPER FORMULA cars. Spectators gave a big cheer as the SUPER GT cars showcased heated battle between each other.

 

Circuit Safari

 

Circuit Safari started from 3:10PM as the last event of the day with cars running on the track. Just like in the Special Battle, SUPER GT machines and SUPER FORMULA ran in mixture with addition of cars from the Inter-Proto Series (IPS). Seven large buses went around the track of Fuji right in the middle of what can be considered as a real battle royal. Excitement of participants reached maximum as heterogeneous machines ran on the same track together, which you never see in a normal race.

 

*Pictures provided by TGRF administration office

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