After the tropical heat of Round 3 in Sepang, Malaysia, the 2004 AUTOBACS JGTC moves to the northernmost circuit of Japan. Round 4 of the series takes place on July 17-18 at Tokachi International Speedway in Hokkaido. The circuit is characterized by its lack of elevation change, with the steepest corner being only 2% higher than the rest of the circuit. The course is quite long at 5.091km, though the 3.4km short track will be used for this first JGTC event, making it the shortest among the circuits the series races on. Nevertheless, it will accept all 43 cars for the race weekend.

Although the Toyota, Nissan and Honda camps all carried out private test sessions at this circuit in May, no official GT-A test session was scheduled before the event. Thus, competitors have never all run together under the same conditions at the track before the upcoming race weekend. There is a groundswell of enthusiasm for Motor sports in Hokkaido. After the JGTC event, the circuit will host the Tokachi 24 hour race (Super Taikyu) in August, and the World Rally Championship's inaugural Japan round will be held in this region in September.

After three rounds out of seven, the Toyota Supra has won two races to the one victory by the Nissan Fairlady Z. They say the Supra is fast on the straights and the Fairlady Z quick in the corners. Each car surely has its best-suited tracks, but race results are a different matter. Competition for victory is based on the entire team's ability. For this race, which marks the halfway point of the championship, many competitors can be considered as favorites.
The driver pair of J.Dufour and A.Couto (TOYOTA TEAM SARD) won the previous round in Sepang. After a disappointing opening two races, they gave a strong performance at the tropical Malaysian circuit, giving the season's first victory to the team. They are increasing their pace but the No.39 Supra will be carrying 70kg handicap weight in Tokachi, making it the heaviest in the field.

The winning pair from Round 1, S.Motoyama and R.Lyons (NISMO) in the No.1 Fairlady Z drove a steady race at Sepang to finish in third place. In Round 2, they had problems in the car and retired before the start of the race. As with the two abovementioned teams, the TOYOTA TEAM CERUMO squad commands two fast drivers in Y.Tachikawa and S.Ara. They have always displayed their speed well, scoring a triumph in Round 2 at Sugo. Their No.38 Supra, however, will be carrying 60kg handicap weight for the Tokachi event.
J.Wakisaka and A.Iida of the ESSO TOYOTA Team LeMans outfit have not won a race so far this season, but have been among the front-runners in every round so far. Their No.6 Supra is carrying only 10kg of handicap weight for the Tokachi round. The pair's speed is already proven and they clearly have a big chance for victory at this, the series' first visit to Tokachi.
The two TOYOTA TEAM TOM'S Supras are also favorites for the next round. The No.36 Supra driven by T.Tsuchiya and M.Apicella missed victory at Sepang due to a cool suit problem. The car will be carrying only 10kg of handicap weight for Tokachi. The team's second car, the No.37 Supra featuring the young driver pair of J.Courtney and T.Kataoka is worthy of note as well. They finished third in Round 2 and fifth in Round 3. Their weight handicap is not prohibitively heavy at 30kg.
The highlight of previous round was the No.35 Supra entered by KRAFT with N.Hattori and S.Wakisaka, as the drivers gave an excellent performance on Dunlop tires and finished in second place (Handicap weight:40kg).

For the Nissan teams, the No.3 Fairlady Z run by HASEMI MOTORSPORTS has been steadily improving its performance. Drivers T.Kaneishi and E.Comas finished in sixth place in both the opening two rounds, and in fourth at Sepang. The car will be carrying 20kg of weight in the Tokachi race.
The No.12 Fairlady Z, driven by another pair of young fellows, B.Treluyer and Y.Ide (TEAM IMPUL), is also worthy of note. They took pole position at the previous round and controlled the race until an accident. Their handicap weight is 30kg.
Needless to say, the two NISMO-entered Fairlady Zs can always be mentioned as favorites.

The Honda camps haven't been able to catch up with the Toyotas and Nissans in terms of development this year, their best qualifying position so far being eighth, scored by R.Michigami and S.Philippe in the No.18 NSX (Dome Racing Team) at Round 3. The NSXs best race result is fourth place, taken by A.Lotterer and T.Matsuda in the No.32 NSX (NAKAJIMA RACING). However, the gap between the Honda and two other make's cars has been decreasing steadily. Honda fans can expect better results than at previous rounds.

At the Tokachi round, the Lamborghini Murcielago R-GT run by AMPREX Motorsports will make its debut on a Japanese circuit.

It is also very hard to predict the winner of the GT300 class. In addition to the fact that it is the first time for everybody at Tokachi, three different models have won the three previous rounds. The No.10 Ferrari F360 entered by Team GAINER with T.Tanaka and A.Yogo at the wheel took the victory in Round 1 at TI Aida ahead of the No.43 ASL Garaiya (M.Nitta-S.Takagi, ARTA). The No.19 Celica (T.Aoki-N.Taniguchi - RACING PROJECT BANDOH) triumphed in Round 2 at Sugo with the No.17 Celica (M.Nagashima-M.Matsunaga - SPIRIT Motorsport) second. Then the No.7 Mazda RX-7 (S.Yamaji-H.Iiri - RE AMEMIYA RACING) went on to win at Round 3 in Sepang, followed by the No.16 Honda NSX entered by M-TEC Co.Ltd with drivers T.Yamano and H.Yagi. The GT300 class is now split among numerous leaders.
For weight handicap at Tokachi, the No.16 Honda will be carrying the heaviest amount at 70kg, with 55kg for the No.7 Mazda and 40kg for both the No.19 Celica and No.63 Vemac entries. The No.63 car, entered by TEAM LEYJUN, has also shown good performance so far this season, although the driver pair of OSAMU and H.Yoshimoto has never taken a podium finish.
Team GAINER's second Ferrari (H.Matsuda-I.Suga), the No.52 Celica driven by H.Takeuchi and M.Nishizawa (TOYOTA TEAM CERUMO), the two Fairlady Zs of TEAM DAISHIN (No.80: M.Kinoshita-K.Hoshino, No.81: M.Yanagida-N.Omoto) and the No.31 Toyota MR-S (K.Sasaki-S.Goto, TEAM RECKLESS) are also worthy of note.

The starting lights for Round 4 go out on July 18 at Tokachi International Speedway.