The 1998 All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship was the sixth season of Japan Automobile Federation GT premiere racing. It was marked as well as the sixteenth season of a JAF-sanctioned sports car racing championship dating back to the

All Japan Sports Prototype Championship The , abbreviated as JSPC, formed by the Japan Automobile Federation, was a domestic championship which took place in Japan for Group C and IMSA GTP Sports prototype, prototype cars and also featured cars that were eligible for touring car racin ...

. The GT500 class champion was the #23

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driven by

Érik Comas Érik Gilbert Comas (; born 28 September 1963) is a French former racing driver, who competed in Formula One from to . In Japanese motorsport, Comas won the All-Japan GT Championship in 1998 and 1999 with Nismo. He won the French Formula ...

and Masami Kageyama, and the GT300 class champion was the #25 Team Taisan Jr with Tsuchiya MR2 driven by Keiichi Suzuki and

Shingo Tachi was a Japanese racing driver, the son of Nobuhide Tachi (舘信秀), founder and head of TOM's, the motorsport side of Toyota. Racing career Tachi raced in British Formula Vauxhall with Rowan Racing in 1994 and 1995 before switching to B ...

, who won a record five championship races, plus the post-season all-star race, giving them a total of six wins in 1998. The season was marred by a horrific crash at the All Japan Fuji GT Race on May 3, 1998, when Ferrari Club of Japan driver Tetsuya Ota lost control of his Ferrari F355 in heavy rain and fog, and crashed into the stationary Porsche 911 of Tomohiko Sunako. Ota's car erupted into flames upon impact, and fellow racer

Shinichi Yamaji was a Japanese race car driver. He formerly raced in the Japanese Grand Touring Championship, currently known as Super GT Super GT (stylized as SUPER GT) is a sports car racing series that began in 1993. Launched as the , generally referred t ...

rushed to extinguish the fire. Ota suffered severe burns and nerve damage that would force him to retire from full-time racing. Sunako suffered a broken leg, but would continue to race in the series later on. 1998 also saw the first GT500 class victory for

Honda commonly known as just Honda, is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate automotive manufacturer headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Founded in October 1946 by Soichiro Honda, Honda has bee ...

, at the Japan Special GT Cup at Fuji Speedway.

Drivers and teams

GT500

GT300

Schedule

Season results

Point Ranking

GT500

Drivers

GT500 Teams' standings

For teams that entered multiple cars, only the best result from each round counted towards the teams' points.

GT300 Drivers' championship

GT300 Teams' standings

For teams that entered multiple cars, only the best result from each round counted towards the teams' championship.

References

External links

Super GT/JGTC official race archive

{{Super GT seasons Super GT seasons

JGTC All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship (JGTC) is a grand touring car racing series that began in 1993. Originally titled as the , the series was renamed to Super GT in 2005. It was the top level of sports car racing in Japan. The series was s ...