The curtain for the 2004 AUTOBACS JGTC Series rises at TI Circuit Aida on April 3. The site of the season opener is a technical course with two long straights connected by a series of low and medium-speed curves. The track was resurfaced during the winter months and teams running constructors' cars put their machines through the paces, breaking the course record repeatedly. Some incredible lap times are expected for the Saturday qualifying sessions.

The defending champion make (Nissan Skyline GT-R) will not run this season. Instead, the Nissan/NISMO camp is fielding the Fairlady Z (known as the Nissan 350Z outside of Japan) as their new weapon for the JGTC. The Fairlady Z is the car make that won the Driver's Championship in the GT300 class last year, but the GT500 Fairlady Z is a completely different car, newly built in accordance with the 2004 Technical Regulations and adopting NISMO technologies used in the Skyline.
The Nissan Z demonstrated superb performance during the first JGTC official test sessions held at Suzuka on March 12-13, dominating top places on the timing sheet. Defending Driver's Champions Michael Krumm and Satoshi Motoyama will each be driving with new teammates this year: Krumm with Masami Kageyama in the No.22 Fairlady Z, and Motoyama with Richard Lyons in the No.1 Nissan. Krumm put in the fastest lap and Motoyama the third fastest.
Erik Comas, who drove for Toyota Team Tom's last year, returns to the Nissan camp paired up with Toshihiro Kaneishi in the No.3 Fairlady Z of Hasemi Motorsports. The French driver won the 1998 and 1999 JGTC Driver's Champion titles for the NISMO team and Kaneishi drove a Honda NSX last year.

In contrast to Nissan's bold move, Toyota opted for a sound, proven package this year, relying on the evolutionary 2004 version for the Supra. Changes include the adoption of a naturally aspirated V8 engine with a displacement of 4.5 liters, down from the 5.2-liter version of the 2003 model, giving the car favorable minimum weight and air restrictor size values, which were newly revised for 2004. The Supra showed its ability to contend with the Nissan Zs at the JGTC test sessions. Juichi Wakisaka (and teammate Akira Iida) is driving the No.6 Supra for ESSO TOYOTA Team LeMans, a main contender for the 2003 title up until the very last round. Takeshi Tsuchiya is driving the No.36 Supra for Toyota Team Tom's, and was the quickest Toyota during the test sessions at Suzuka. He will be sharing the wheel with Marco Apicella. The team's second car, the No.37 Supra, is under the control of the 2003 All-Japan F3 Champion, James Courtney, and a young Japanese hopeful, Tatsuya Kataoka. This year the team be using Bridgestone tires, making the switch from Michelin used in previous years.

The number of Honda works teams drops from five to four this year, all of which will be entering the newly developed 2004 NSX equipped with a 3-liter twin-turbocharged V6 engine. But the Honda performance was lagging behind the Nissans and Toyotas during the JGTC test sessions. It seemed as though they've been unable to catch up in the development race, especially with the newly introduced twin-turbo engine. But Honda is Honda. As the constructor that attaches greater importance on motorsports than any other Japanese manufacturer, it's hard to think that they will be getting run over on the field this year. "It doesn't appear that Honda's condition is normal. I wonder how much they will catch up. It is ominous..." commented Hiroshi Degawa, NISMO team manager.
Shinji Nakano, who raced in F1, the CART series and some IRL events, will join Team Kunimitsu with MOONCRAFT to drive the No.100 NSX along with Hiroki Kato.

A F550 Maranello developed by PRO DRIVE has been entered in the series by HITOTSUYAMA RACING. The speed of this FIA GT Championship car is worthy of noting. But there are so many differences between the FIA GT Championship and JGTC. Hidetoshi Mitsusada and Mikio Hitotsuyama will be piloting the car.

Two Murcielago R-GTs will also be competing in the JGTC this season. Team JLOC (Japan Lamborghini Owners Club) and AMPREX Motorsport have entered the Italian super car. But both team will be absent from the opening round due to delays in development schedules.

The latter half of the 2003 season was dominated by a Toyota Celica developed by TRD. In all, two Celicas won four races. But the field will be a bit different this year, with M-TEC (formerly, Mugen) coming into the GT300 class with a Honda NSX that is basically the same car as that running in the GT500, simply refitted to the GT300 regulations. On the Nissan side, there will be two Fairlady Z in the field, raising the number by one from the 2003 season. It goes without saying that the battle between the big three will be strong in the GT300 category.

The GT300 field is vast though, and the challenges and excitement are guaranteed from all. Other constructors in 2004 include the return of the Vemac and ASL Garaiya. Tow Vemac RD320Rs are in the lineup this year, entered by Team Mach and Team LEYJUN. The ASL Garaiya remains with the same team (AUTOBACS RACING TEAM AGURI) and drivers (Morio Nitta and /Shinichi Takagi), but there's been a substantial change with the power plant. Last year's turbocharged 2-liter, 4-cylinder Nissan engine is replaced by a 3.5-liter naturally aspirated V6, the same engine equipped in the Fairlady Z. Having shown superb corning speed last year, the Garaiya will likely stand out as a strong contender having introduced a means of countering the lack of engine power output last year.

Toyota also has MR-Ss in the lineup. Only two seasons ago (2002) the car brought its drivers the championship, and this year has the opportunity to be more competitive owing to new regulations. The nose of the 2004 MR-S has been extended to optimize aerodynamic characteristics and its 2-liter, 4-cylinder turbocharged engine is mounted longitudinally (instead of original horizontal placement). The No.30 MR-S driven by Kota Sasaki and Satoshi Goto was the third fastest car during the JGTC test sessions.

Another new twist to the season is the participation of Kumho Tires, a Korean manufacturer. Verno Tokai Dream 28 will be using the Korean tire on the No.2 Honda NSX. They set the seventh quickest lap during the JGTC test sessions at Suzuka.
The quickest GT300 car in the JGTC test sessions at Suzuka was the No.11 Ferrari 360 Modena (Hideshi Matsuda and Ichijyo Suga). The Ferrari was impressive and showed excellent speed, sometimes running first in the pack last season, but never finished with a win as a result of problems or plain bad luck. The team will be running two cars this season. The No.19 Celica driven by Takayuki Aoki and Nubuteru Taniguchi was second fastest, and the No.80 Fairlady Z of Mitsuhiro Kinoshita and Kazuki Hoshino was third.

The qualifying sessions of the "GT CHAMPIONSHIP in TI" will be held on Saturday April 3.