The final race of the 2004 AUTOBACS JGTC season takes place on November 20th and 21st at Suzuka Circuit. The venue is well known as the site of the Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix and several other international events. The 5.807km track is challenging for both drivers and cars, having variations of curves including both high-speed and slow, tight corners as well as two straights.

S.Motoyama & R.Lyons

It was the No.1 Fairlady Z which gave an exceptional performance at the last race in Kyushu. In spite of a heavy 80kg handicap weight, the driver pair of Satoshi Motoyama and Richard Lyons drove well at Autopolis Circuit, the track famous for its vast elevation changes, and won the race. Leaders in the drivers' standings, Motoyama and Lyons go to Suzuka with 69 points. With a big 11-point gap over the second placed pair of Jeremie Dufour and Andre Couto (in the No.39 Supra entered by Toyota Team SARD), the Nissan pair seem to have the advantage. If they finish anywhere within the top three places, they get the Driver's Championship title regardless of the results of the others. However, the No.1 car will be carrying 120kg success ballast - the maximum of the weight handicap system - while the No.39 Supra will be loaded with 70kg. Dufour and Couto will be title-winners if they finish first and Motoyama-Lyons can not do better than fourth.

No.39 DENSO SARD SUPRA GT J.Dufour & A.Couto

Third place in the championship standings, and only a single point behind the Dufour-Couto pairing, is Juichi Wakisaka and Akira Iida in the ESSO TOYOTA Team LeMans Supra. Their No.6 machine will be loaded with a very heavy 100kg. They finished the previous race in fifth following an unfortunate spin in the very last laps. For Wakisaka-Iida to take the title they would have to win at Suzuka this weekend and have Motoyama-Lyons finish no better than 5th. Any one of these three driver pairings could win the Driver's Championship on Sunday.

There are seven Supras entered by teams that have "TOYOTA" in their names, and there is a possibility that the Toyota camp would order the drivers of these cars to work out strategies that are advantageous to the Toyota cars if necessary. Needless to say, the Nissan teams could also introduce a similar strategy.

No.6 ESSO Ultraflo Supra J.Wakisaka & A.Iida

Although a wide range of teams are up for the title this season, it does not include any of the Honda NSXs. They should not be overlooked for victory in the season's final race however. The NSXs have no heavy weight handicap apart from the No.32 car (entered by EPSON NAKAJIMA RACING) which will be carrying 30kg success ballast. All four Hondas will gain either one or two levels under the JAF's performance enhancement regulations. Moreover, the No.18 and No.100 cars both performed excellently at Honda's home circuit when the two machines dominated the Suzuka 1000kms on August 22nd, finishing 1-2 in the legendary midsummer's event.

The No.15 Lamborghini Murcielago will not be coming to Suzuka. However, the other Murcielago in the JGTC, the No.88 car entered by JLOC will race this weekend, the sound of its beautiful Italian V12 piercing the air for the fans.

A newcomer will also take part in the season-ending race. The No.62 Vemac will compete with a Mugen MF408 V8 engine. The car raced last year with a Honda engine but this is a completely new car.

M.Nitta & S.Takagi

Only two driver pairs can possibly become winners of the Driver's title in the class: Morio Nitta-Shinichi Takagi in the No.43 Garaiya and Tetsuya Yamano-Hiroyuki Yagi in the No.16 Honda NSX. The gap between these two contenders is actually only 4 points. As point leaders, if the Nitta-Takagi pairing win, they'll take the title regardless of the results of Yamano and Yagi. However, if the Garaiya finishes in second place following the NSX, the Yamano-Yagi pairing will become champions. In the case where the Garaiya finishes fourth and the NSX third, the points of both driver pairs are tied. In that case, the Nitta-Takagi pairing become champions based on their superior number of victories. Obviously Nitta and Takagi have the advantage over Yamano and Yagi, but the difference between the two machines is only slight as they are running with identical weight handicaps.

No.16 M-TEC NSX T.Yamano & H.Yagi

Estimating who the winner of the race will be besides the two abovementioned cars, all the top-ranking contestants deserve a mention. It's the same at every Round. Celicas, Fairlady Zs, Ferrari F360s and Toyota MR-Ss can all be there at the end. The two Ferrari F360s entered by Team GAINER (No.10: Tetsuya Tanaka-Atsushi Yogo, No.11: Hideshi Matsuda-Ichijyo Suga) should be especially strong. The No.10 car will be loaded with a weight handicap of only 15kg for this race, while the No.11 car will be carrying 40kg.

The No.19 Celica has demonstrated its performance ability so far this season with the driver pair of Takayuki Aoki-Nobuteru Taniguchi at the wheel of the car entered by RACING PROJECT BANDOH. This car won the race here in 2003. The car will be carrying a 40kg weight handicap. The No.52 Celica driven by Hironori Takeuchi and Seigoh Nishizawa (Toyota Team CERUMO) has also shown some fine performances, but has yet to achieve a good result. The car will be carrying only 10kg weight handicap. The two Fairlady Zs of Team DAISHIN (No.80: Mitsuhiro Kinoshita-Kazuki Hoshino, No.81: Masataka Yanagida-Naofumi Omoto) and the No.7 Mazda RX-7 of RE Amemiya Racing (Shinichi Yamaji-Hiroyuki Iiri) are also noteworthy entries.

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