The biggest, loudest and fastest Grand Touring Car championship in the world kicks off this weekend at Okayama International Circuit in southern Japan.
The newly-named series, formerly the JGTC (All-Japan Grand Touring Car championship), carries on with its trademark of featuring the planet's most technologically advanced cars battling each other in tightly-contested endurance races. It's a series where the winners are difficult to predict, and the championship always goes down to the wire.
Fans will be thrilled by the sights and sounds trackside on March 26th and 27th as some of the best drivers in the world take on their rivals at the track that formerly hosted F1's Pacific Grand Prix (then called TI Circuit Aida).

Size Does Matter

Apart from being arguably the most exciting spectacle in motor racing today, SUPER GT features an unparalleled 47-car grid from its two classes. The GT500 cars lap their GT300 counterparts up to 6 times a race, adding a dimension rarely seen in modern motorsport today - lots of passing!

Round 1 of the 2005 championship will be interesting not only for the action on track, but also because fans will be watching a number of their heroes competing in new machinery, and in some cases for new teams, in 2005.

It's All Up For Grabs

Ironically, it's the unpredictability of the series that's so predictable. Last year's champions Satoshi Motoyama and Northern Irishman Richard Lyons will be strenuously defending their title as NISMO fights to keep up their momentum and maintain a distance to the rival factory-backed efforts from Toyota and Honda.

Meanwhile, Toyota and Honda are pushing ahead in their attempts to break the stranglehold NISMO have had on the series over the last couple of seasons.

Toyota now supports no fewer than eight of its SUPRA models for this year's campaign. The addition of the No.34 BANDAI entry (sister car to the No.35 Yellow Hat machine) with 2004 Le Mans winner Seiji Ara at the wheel a clear illustration of its commitment to regaining the coveted crown.

Winter testing has shown some promising results for the four Honda NSX machines in GT500. The newly-developed NSX GT Project means Honda are putting a renewed effort into grabbing back some of the glory the mid-engined supercar enjoyed in previous years. They will be fighting eagerly for results - including a couple of wins if all goes to plan.

Difficult to Predict a Winner

In 2004, the then all-new Nissan 350 Z took victory on its maiden event when a late-race penalty scuppered any chances the No.39 DENSO SARD SUPRA GT had of winning after leading for much of the race. It is impossible to tell just who will take the honors in GT500 this Sunday, though one or another of the 4 Nissan Z cars in the top class has got to be a serious threat to all the other teams.

From Toyota, the No.39 DENSO SARD SUPRA GT machine will want to put behind it the memories of last year's race with victory this time around. The driver lineup, though losing Jeremie Dufour to the No.100 Raybrig NSX, features current All-Japan F3 champion Ronnie Quintarelli alongside team regular Andre Couto. The No.6 Esso Ultraflo machine should also be strong, with former champions Juichi Wakisaka and Akira Iida pushing hard for points in the season-opener.

TEAM TOM'S two works entries, with James Courtney and Takeshi Tsuchiya leading the charge, will be showing newcomer and Formula Dream graduate Sakon Yamamoto how it's done, while with the new No.34 BANDAI entry, and the return of Tora (Toranosuke) Takagi, in the No.38 TEAM CERUMO SUPRA, should be exciting to watch.

Among the Honda runners, the most significant change is with the No.100 Raybrig machine, featuring two new drivers. NSX specialist Sebastien Philippe and Jeremie Dufour are the only all-French lineup in the series, and will no doubt add some flair to the outfit, in addition to their already-proven race pace.

The newly-named Honda Racing has added former JGTC champion Ralph Firman to its No.8 ARTA NSX. The Briton will be sharing driving duties with longtime Honda driver Daisuke Ito in the dayglo orange machine. Meanwhile, Ryo Michigami shares the No.18 Takata Dome NSX with Takashi Kogure, while in the No.32 EPSON NSX, Andre Lotterer will again be fighting for glory alongside regular teammate Tsugio Matsuda.

GT300 Continues to Grow

A quick glance at the GT300 grid and it's readily apparent this class alone is larger than most series' entire entry lists!

One of the main features of the GT300 class is the staggering variety of cars in its ranks. The season entry list boasts no fewer than 15 different models out of the 29 entries. Many low-volume production makers are attracted to GT300, including England's Vemac. This season features four of the British machines, all competing in the GT300 class.

Other speciality entries include the ARTA Garaiya, which came very close to claiming the overall class crown last season. One-off entries in the series include the No.77 CUSCO ADVAN SUBARU IMPREZA, the Porsche Boxster, the Porsche 968, and the series' newest car, the Chevrolet Corvette C6, run by A&S Racing, which also campaigns the sole Mosler MT900R in SUPER GT.

In this class too, it's hard to know who's going to end up on the top step of the podium. Last year's champions, the No.0 EBBRO NSX will undoubtedly be running well, as will the No.7 Amemiya Aspara Drink RX-7, winners last year in Sepang, Malaysia. The pair of Ferrari F360 Modena machines should also be a force to be reckoned with, as will the now Michelin-shod Toyota MR-S machines. And, one cannot dscount the three Toyota Celicas in the class; while the pair of 350 Z cars from the new MOLA team could provide an outstanding upset.


With the variety of cars competing in both classes, only time will tell who's going to be spraying the champagne on Sunday evening.