Japanese
SUPER GT's operating body GTA Co., Ltd holds a regular press conference at each event. Prior to the race start of long-awaited opening round of the 2020-season, GTA Chairman Masaaki Bandoh answered to representative questions raised by Japan Motorsport-journalist Society (JMS) as well as questions from journalists during the regular meet.
- 4 races of the first half of this season, including this round, will be held with no spectators in an effort to prevent spreading of novel coronavirus. Can you share GTA's roadmap for relaxing the limitation put in place for having spectators at the circuit in near future?
Chairman Bandoh: People who can enter to the circuit during this event are limited to team members, limited event operation staff, and limited media personnel, totaling about 1750 people. Those people were asked to submit a questionnaire on their health conditions on daily basis from 2 weeks before the event, and, in addition, everybody entering the circuit are checked for their body temperature at the gate during the event. That is what it took for us to finally reach here.
After we are successfully being able to hold this event by executing all these efforts required to prevent the spread of novel coronavirus, we will, then, prepare ourselves to be ready to hold support races and welcome the sponsors who we were not able to invite this time, it's a step by step process.
We are holding this season opener as "One-day" event by having the qualifying and the race in one day, but we are considering to return to "Two-day" event for the Round 2 Fuji (Aug 8 and 9) in August. For holding a race with spectators at the circuit, we are targeting the Round 5 Fuji (Oct 3 and 4), which is the first race of the second half of the season.
- What is the plan for holding the FIA-F4 Championship, a support race of SUPER GT event?
Chairman Bandoh: At this point, we are planning to hold the support race from the Round 5 Fuji. The plan is to hold 3 races of FIA-F4 at each of 4 events from Round 5 to 8, totaling 12 races. The initial requirement by FIA (International Automobile Federation) was a total of 14 races and 5 events, but, with the situation like this, we are requesting through JAF (Japan Automobile Federation) to grant Super license points by a total of 12 races, 2 races less than the FIA requirement.
- There was an announcement that Audi will withdraw from DTM (Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters) that shares the same technical regulations as SUPER GT's GT500 class, CLASS 1. Can you tell us about what is the future relationship with DTM?
Chairman Bandoh: We held a special inter-series race between DTM and SUPER GT in November last year, and we, GTA, believe that was a significant accomplishment not only domestically but also at global level, and everybody involved are aware that we made a step forward. However, DTM is no different in getting a huge impact from the novel coronavirus, and Audi is withdrawing. I can imagine the situation is very difficult for the DTM operator ITR. It would be the best if we could hold a race event together with DTM, but, considering the current situation, that would be very difficult to achieve for a while.
We have not been able to discuss anything on an inter-series race with DTM at this moment. However, the CLASS 1 regulations we created with ITR is a technical regulation, and we will continue to apply this to the GT500 class of SUPER GT. Our view on the parts we developed together and on taking things step by step and make steady progress on the concepts does not change, so, we will continue to put efforts in the partnership with ITR, although there is licensing discussion at the end of this year and we will also keep on working on that, and whatever we can cooperate and collaborate we will discuss and put our hands together.
| 4/13-14 | Round1 OKAYAMA | |
| 5/03-04 | Round2 FUJI | |
| 6/01-02 | Round3 SUZUKA | |
| 8/03-04 | Round4 FUJI | |
| Postponed | Round5 SUZUKA | |
| 9/21-22 | Round6 SUGO | |
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10/19-20 | Round7 AUTOPOLIS |
| 11/02-03 | Round8 MOTEGI |