2019.08.03

[ITR/GTA joint press conference] "SUPER GT X DTM Dream Race" overview revealed.

On August 3rd, ITR, the promoter of DTM (Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters), and GTA Co., Ltd, the governing body of SUPER GT, jointly held a press conference at Fuji Speedway in midst of 2019 AUTOBACS SUPER GT Round 5 held at the circuit.

The press conference revealed the overview of "SUPER GT x DTM Dream Race," an event held under the collaboration between DTM and SUPER GT, and that AUTOBACS SEVEN CO., LTD will be the event title sponsor and the event will be held under the name of "AUTOBACS 45th Anniversary presents SUPER GT x DTM Dream Race." It was also announced that Best Heritage Japan Co., Ltd. / BH Auction will be an event partner of the race.

BHJ / BH Auction and GTA will hold "GTA with BH Auction" under their new partnership. The floor was also given a high level explanation on the SUPER GT cars that will be participating in the final race of DTM series this year at Hockenheim.

 

 

 

 

 

GTA Chairman Bandoh opened the press conference firstly with an announcement of AUTOBACS SEVEN CO., LTD. and Best Heritage Japan Co., Ltd. / BH Auction becoming the event title sponsor and event partner, respectively, before he moved on to explain the overview of Dream Race.

"GTA has been discussing with DTM organizer ITR since 2010 on how we can integrate our regulations. Based on our determination to build a same regulations between Europe and Asia while reducing the cost, we created a plan in detail and got engaged in numerous discussion for building a same rule where same engine and same monocoque are used. It took very long time, but we finally reached here, and SUPER GT and DTM are racing in a same format with 2-liter direct-injection turbo engine from this year.

"The road up to here was not short nor flat, and we received various kinds of criticisms and complaints. But we always had a determination in our mind to make SUPER GT global by becoming equally competitive as Europe and expand and develop motorsports wider and further. In course of our initiative, we brought three GT500 cars to Hockenheim for demonstration run to show SUPER GT to German people, and we also had a similar event at Motegi, and that was all for making Class 1 known by more and more people, and now we are here to do this.

"May be it was not noticeable, but two parties had been putting efforts in completing this integrated regulations Class 1. Unfortunately, while we were working together on this, one of the manufacturers, Mercedes, left, and Hans Werner Aufrecht, former ITR president who we started out the work together, also left. Despite the situation, Gerhard Berger, who took over the role of chairman, put a lot of his effort and we were able to complete the Class 1 regulations which enabled us to realize this Dream Race. All the work we continued to be doing bore fruit here, and, with completion of Class 1 regulations, we can now organize a big race in Europe and Asia under the same rule. I am very grateful to be able to take the first step towards that. I'm also very happy to see a race under the Class 1 regulations held in Japan.

"We just signed a memorandum for allowing SUPER GT cars to participate as a guest to the DTM Hockenheim round and for bringing DTM cars to Japan to run on a circuit, and that gave us an opportunity to hold this press conference, and we asked Chairman Berger to be with us in the press conference in his busy schedule. I would like to once again extend my appreciation to Chairman Berger. I'm relieved that we finally reached to this point. That is my honest feeling now. All six manufacturers are coming together as one to hold and show a race to the fans in Japan as well as in Europe. A new chapter of motorsports unfolds from here." Chairman Bandoh shared his feeling towards the event.

Chairman Bandoh also mentioned that "GTA with BH Auction" will be held during the inter-series event under the partnership between BHJ/BH Auction and GTA.
It was also announced that a special event for the GT300 class will be held during the event, titled "auto sport Web Sprint cup." Detail of the GT300 class event will be provided separately tomorrow.

 

 

 

 

 

SUPER GT cars that will be participating in DTM's final race at Hockenheim were also announced at the press conference.

 

 

 

ITR Chairman Gerhard Berger followed with his comment, "I would like to start with a big thank you to Bandoh san to host us here to Fuji Speedway. Thank you to the sponsors for the support they made. It’s a big, big milestone in our cooperation between Bandoh san and myself and between SUPER GT and ITR. I think we have a long term view and ambition to put two continents, like Europe, Asia, Japan, together to have one regulations, to have six, seven, eight manufacturers involved to race each other in a nice way.

"As Bandoh san said, after many, many years of hard preparation, we got everything together and this is going to be the start of hopefully a very fruitful cooperation of the future. I hope we will see a lot of Dream Races on the global. There is a long history with the sponsors. There is a long history with the manufacturers. It’s nice to see them all on board. I hope we can stick together and make this work very well in the future.

"Back in Europe, I think, in DTM, we have a very strong platform, but when I went around today, I think we can learn a lot from GTA, how it’s organizing the event. And I’m very thankful to find a very trustful partner in Japan." Berger explained the importance of the joint event for the future.

ITR Chairman also revealed that Hankook Tire will be the sole supplier of the special inter-series race and that teams and drivers participating from DTM will be shared in coming days.

 

 

 

 

 

AUTOBACS SEVEN CO., LTD. (Representative Director & Chief Executive Officer Kiomi Kobayashi) has been the series title sponsor of SUPER GT since 1998 (formerly Japan GT Championship), and the company will expand the partnership to become the event title sponsor of the "SUPER GT x DTM Dream Race," which will be held as "AUTOBACS 45th Anniversary presents SUPER GT x DTM Dream Race."

 

 

Kiomi Kobayashi, Representative Director & Chief Executive Officer of AUTOBACS SEVEN CO., LTD., commented in the press conference, "Thank you very much for providing cooperation and support to SUPER GT day in and day out. I would also like to say congratulation for holding Dream Race. We are committed to provide full support. It's only a coincidence, but 23rd of November is the day when we started AUTOBACS 45 years ago. We thought this is a great opportunity, and we were more than glad to be a sponsor. We always keep in our mind to encourage our customer to like motorsports and become a fan of it, and that is why we have been supporting SUPER GT for 22 years. Cars have changed in many dimensions in these years. I believe customers would be changing too. If I look back the recent years, more customers, more families are coming to the venues of motorsports. A place where families can enjoy, we would like to give our support to create many places like that. Like I said earlier, we are committed to provide full support to have this inter-series race complete in success."

 

 

 

 

As announced at Round 3 Suzuka, Best Heritage Japan Co., Ltd. / BH Auction (CEO Shinji Takei) and SUPER GT have inked a partnership, and the company has also become an event partner of the new event and will host "GTA with BH Auction" on November 23rd during the event.

"GTA with BH Auction" will be a circuit-themed public auction featuring collectible race cars, parts, and memorabilia (motorsports related merchandises, items, etc.). The auction will be held with an objective of creating a totally new revenue structure which proactively engages SUPER GT teams and automakers through the partnership of BHJ and GTA to provide their assets to the auction for securing funds for the race operation of next generation safely and efficiently.

 

 

In the press conference, CEO Takei of Best Heritage Japan Co., Ltd. / BH Auction commented, "BH Auction has been holding on a regular basis a full scale collectible car auction since January last year and this is a first of its kind in Japan. We have been very fortunate, and, in the five auctions we held so far, we had many bidders not only from Japan but also from overseas, and the total amount of sales exceeded 1.4 billion yen.

"Globally the value of collectible cars remains to be high, and the outcome of auctions we had so far reveals that collectible cars will generate new value also in Japan in coming days. BHJ has established a safe and transparent scheme of trades between individuals through our partnership with SMBC Financial Group, and this is providing an environment where anybody can participate in an auction safely. There has been many bids coming from overseas for race cars and parts in the auctions we held in Japan, and we receive more and more requests everyday from the collectors around the world to organize auctions with historical cars and parts residing in Japan. Encouraged by those requests, we approached the operator of SUPER GT, GTA, and we agreed to establish together a scheme to generate funds by putting collectible race cars, parts, memorabilia, etc. in auctions and reinvest the funds to the whole motorsports. Based on the strong partnership with GTA, we are going to propose a totally new revenue structure which proactively engages SUPER GT teams and automakers to provide their assets to the SUPER GT with BH Auction for securing funds for the race operation of next generation safely and efficiently.

"Lastly, I would like to extend my appreciation to ITR Chairman Berger who told me he will show me his beautiful collection when I visit Europe next time. Please provide an item from your beautiful collection to the auction we will hold at Dream Race." Laughter broke out on the floor by his comment.

 

 

 

 

It was also announced that an overview of GT300 class special event "auto sport Web Sprint Cup" will be provided on the next day.

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