2018.11.25

"TGRF" Toyota fan festival draws 43,000 on Nov. 25, 2018! Exciting demo races and talk shows delight!

The TOYOTA GAZOO Racing FESTIVAL 2018 (TGRF) was held on November 25 at Fuji Speedway under blue skies, attracting a larger crowd that last year, at 43,000, to enjoy an exciting array of events.

 

 

As its name implies, TGRF is and event for Lexus and Toyota to report on the year’s racing activities and express their appreciation to the fans. The six Lexus partner teams competing in SUPER GT’s GT500 class and eleven of their drivers were on hand, including the No. 1 KeePer TOM’S LC500 (Ryo Hirakawa/Nick Cassidy), the No. 6 WAKO'S 4CR LC500 (Kazuya Oshima, while teammate Felix Rosenqvist could not attend), the No. 19 WedsSport ADVAN LC500 (Yuji Kunimoto/Kenta Yamashita), the No. 36 au TOM’S LC500 (Kazuki Nakajima/Yuhi Sekiguchi), the No. 38 ZENT CERUMO LC500 (Yuji Tachikawa/Hiroaki Ishiura) and the No. 39 DENSO KOBELCO SARD LC500 (Heikki Kovalainen/Kamui Kobayashi) were present.

From the GT300 class, the No. 30 TOYOTA PRIUS apr GT (Hiroaki Nagai/Manabu Orido), the No. 31 TOYOTA PRIUS apr GT (Koki Saga/Kohei Hirate), the No. 35 arto RC F GT3 (N.Charoensukhawatana/N.Hortongkum), the No. 60 SYNTIUM LMcorsa RC F GT3 (Daiki Yoshimoto/Ritomo Miyata), the No. 96 K-tunes RC F GT3 (Morio Nitta/Yuichi Yamanaka) and the No. 61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT (Takuto Iguchi/Hideteru Yamauchi) were represented.

 

 

Welcoming Ceremony

 

At 9:15 in the morning, the Welcoming Ceremony was held at the main grandstand, beginning with appears by the No. 1 KeePer TOM'S LC500 and the other machines competing in each category. Then Toyota’s president Akio Toyoda made a surprise appearance in a Toyota Century GRMN driven by Kamui Kobayashi. This drew great applause from the gallery.

 

 

 

Driver Talk Show

 

At the TGRF booth set up in the event plaza behind the grandstand, a Talk Show featuring the drivers and team managers was held. As the first event of the day, a Talk Show with the GT500 class was held, and despite the early start time of 8:15 in the morning, many fans had turned out by the time the 11 GT500 drivers took the stage. They were joined by the TOYOTA GAZOO Racing Ambassador, manager Juichi Wakisaka of the LEXUS TEAM LEMANS WAKO'S team, who helped liven up the morning event.

Although the Lexus teams in the GT500 class won three rounds of the season this year, they fell just short of winning the season championship. However, looking back on the season, Hirakawa was positive, saying that he was determined to come back to make a title attempt next year. Also, as the show was conducted in an open, informal manner, there were lots of personal comments and laughter throughout.

The nine drivers taking part in the GT300 class Talk Show included Nagai, Orido, Saga, Hirate, Charoensukhawatana, Hortongkum, Yoshimoto Tomita and Nitta. This show also brought out plenty of insider talk that fans don’t normally hear.

 

 

 

Another of the popular TGRF events was the team manager Talk Show featuring the LEXUS TEAM KeePer TOM'S manager Masanori Sekiya, LEXUS TEAM LEMANS WAKO'S manager Juichi Wakisaka, LEXUS TEAM WedsSport BANDOH manager Masataka Bandoh and the LEXUS TEAM au TOM'S manager Daisuke Ito. Also appearing from the Super Formula teams were Kazuyoshi Hoshino and Masahiko Kondo, who joined the conversation with lots of comments about the drivers and the events of this season.

 

 

 

Pit Walk

 

Of course there was the popular noontime Pit Walk event where the drivers took time from their busy schedules to sign autographs and interact with the fans like they do during the race season. There were also appearances by each team’s Race Queens to add to the gaiety of the event. Among the All Drivers Appearances, one especially popular moment was the re-appearance of Saga doing his impersonation of “Saga Kichi.” Walking through the team pits, he attracted lots of attention.

 

 

 

 

 

Circuit Safari

 

The afternoon saw the SUPER GT cars appear out on the track on numerous occasions. As a regular event of TGRF, the Circuit Safari saw the GT cars joined by the Super Formula machines and cars that participated in the Nürburgring 24 Hours, and as a special appearance this time, the new Supra machine was also seen out on the track. At this year’s TGRF, once again there were plenty of scenes like drivers going out of their way to delight the fans with stunts like slowing down beside the fan buses to wave.

 

 

 

SUPER GT Demonstration Race

 

The final TGRF event was the SUPER GT Demonstration Race. Participating in the GT500 class demo race were the No. 1 KeePer TOM'S LC500, the No. 6 WAKO'S 4CR LC500, the No. 38 ZENT CERUMO LC500, and the No. 39 DENSO KOBELCO SARD LC500. Among them, Sho Tsuboi joined Oshima in car No. 6 to participate as a pair. Participating as race announcers, managers Ito and Bandoh said their cars No. 19 and No. 36 have already been shipped off to Sepang to participate in the official tests being held there.

 

 

 

In the GT300 class event, six machines took part, the No. 30 TOYOTA apr PRIUS GT, the No. 31 TOYOTA apr PRIUS GT, the No. 35 arto RC F GT3, the No. 60 SYNTIUM LMcorsa RC F GT3, the No. 96 K-tunes RC F GT3 and the No. 61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT.

There was a driver change during the 6-lap demonstration race and the fans could watch close battles unfold just like during the regular GT season rounds. By this time it was nearing evening but many fans remained to enjoy seeing their beloved SUPER GT machines.

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