The 2006 Autobacs Super GT Series was the fourteenth season of the Japan Automobile Federation Super GT Championship including the

All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship 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 ...

(JGTC) era and the second season as the

Super GT Super GT (stylized as SUPER GT) is a sports car racing series that began in 1993. Launched as the , generally referred to as the All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship (JGTC), the series was renamed to Super GT in 2005. It is the top level of ...

series. It was also the twenty-fourth 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 season began on March 19 and ended on November 5, 2006, after 9 races.

Juichi Wakisaka is a former Japanese racing driver who was a 2002, 2006 and 2009 champion in Japan's Super GT series in the Super GT#GT500, GT500 category. Prior to the 1998 Formula One World Championship , 1998 Formula One season he tested for the Jordan Grand ...

André Lotterer André Lotterer (born 19 November 1981) is a German racing driver, who most recently competed in the FIA World Endurance Championship for Porsche in motorsport, Porsche. In formula racing, Lotterer competed in Formula One at the in , and Formu ...

, and

Toyota is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on August 28, 1937. Toyota is the List of manuf ...

Team TOM'S won the GT500 drivers' and teams' championships, in the debut season for the new Lexus SC430. Tetsuya Yamano, Hiroyuki Iiri, and RE Amemiya Racing won the GT300 drivers' and teams' championships in their

Mazda RX-7 The Mazda RX-7 is a front mid engine, Rear-wheel drive, rear-wheel-drive, rotary engine-powered sports car, manufactured and marketed by Mazda from 1978 through 2002 across three generations, all of which incorporated the use of a compact, light ...

. The championship battle was decided on the final lap of the season, with Yamano and Iiri winning the drivers' title on a tiebreaker over

Kazuho Takahashi is a Japanese businessman and semi-retired amateur racing driver. He is the CEO, president and founder of VT Holdings and Honda Cars Tokai, a chain of Honda dealerships found across Aichi Prefecture. Racing career Takahashi's first known form ...

and

Hiroki Katoh is a Japanese racing driver and team manager. Racing career Katoh started karting in 1990 and entered four-wheeled racing in 1992 with Formula Toyota. He would then compete in the Japanese Formula 3 Championship, with a highlight being a 6th ...

of Cars Tokai Dream28.

Drivers and teams

GT500

GT300

Vehicle changes

GT500

* Toyota introduced the Lexus SC 430 as their new GT500 vehicle, replacing the fourth-generation

Toyota Supra is a sports car and grand tourer manufactured and developed by the Toyota Motor Corporation beginning in 1978. The name " supra" is a definition from the Latin prefix, meaning "above", "to surpass" or "go beyond". The initial four generations ...

. This coincided with the introduction of the Lexus nameplate for the Japanese market in July 2005. Four teams (TOM'S, Cerumo, LeMans, and Kraft) would run the new SC430, while SARD and Tsuchiya Engineering continued to use the Supra. *

Team Goh TGM Grand Prix or TGMGP, formerly Team Goh Motorsports, is a Japanese auto racing team founded by Kazumichi Goh in 1996. Now the team compete in Super Formula Championship since 2023. History Initially competing in the All-Japan Grand Touring ...

planned to enter the series with a Maserati MC12 GT1 driven by

Seiji Ara Seiji Ara (荒聖治; Ara Seiji) (born May 5, 1974 in Chiba, Japan) is a Japanese race car driver. He was the winner of the 24-hour Le Mans race in 2004, driving an Audi R8. In the same year he also raced in the Le Mans Endurance Series and ...

and

Jan Magnussen Jan Ellegaard Magnussen (born 4 July 1973) is a Danish professional racing driver and was a factory driver for General Motors until the end of the 2020 season. He has competed in Champ Car, Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART), NASCAR, the FIA ...

. Competing as Stile Corse, they participated in the pre-season test at Suzuka on 3–4 March, but after lacklustre results, the team scrapped their plans to race in GT500.

GT300

* Mooncraft Engineering and Cars Tokai Dream28 introduced the Shiden MC/RT-16, a prototype racing car based upon the Riley Mk.XI

Daytona Prototype A Daytona Prototype was a type of sports prototype racing car developed specifically for the Grand-Am Road Racing, Grand American Road Racing Association's Rolex Sports Car Series as their top class of car, which replaced their main prototype rac ...

Ford GT The Ford GT is a Mid-engine design, mid-engine two-seater sports car manufactured and marketed by American automobile manufacturer Ford Motor Company, Ford for the 2005 model year in conjunction with the company's 2003 centenary. The second gene ...

supercar. The car was powered by the 3.5 litre DHG D35806V V8 engine, which was derived from the Mugen MF308 engine previously used in the

Formula Nippon The Japanese Super Formula Championship is a formula racing series held primarily in Japan. It is considered to be the pinnacle of single-seater racing in Japan or Asia as a whole, making it one of the top motorsport series in the region. The s ...

championship.

Team changes

GT500

Kondo Racing Kondo Racing is an automobile racing team founded, owned and headed by Masahiko Kondo. The operating body is MK Company Co., Ltd. MK is an abbreviation for Masahiko Kondo. The team competes in Super Formula as well as in Super GT in both the GT ...

, owned by Japanese musician and former racing driver

Masahiko Kondo Masahiko (written: 正彦, 雅彦, 誠彦, 昌彦, 允彦, 政彦, 真彦, 正比古 or まさ彦) is a masculine Japanese given name. Notable people with the name include: *, an officer in the Imperial Japanese Army imprisoned for his involvement ...

, entered Super GT for the first time as a Nissan factory team. * Toyota teams TOM'S and Kraft scaled back to single-car teams after running two cars each in 2005. * Hitotsuyama Racing and their privately entered Ferrari 550 GTS and

McLaren F1 GTR The McLaren F1 GTR is the racing variant of the McLaren F1 sports car first produced in 1995 for grand touring style racing, such as the BPR Global GT Series, FIA GT Championship, JGTC, and British GT Championship. It was powered by the na ...

withdrew from the series.

GT300

* M-TEC (Mugen) closed their GT300 team to focus on their ongoing technical alliance with Team Kunimitsu in GT500. *

Autobacs Racing Team Aguri Autobacs Racing Team Aguri (ARTA) is a joint racing project formed between former F1 driver Aguri Suzuki and Autobacs in 1997. The team's original name was "ARTA F1 Project," but due to trademark claims based on the usage of the word "F1", the n ...

(ARTA) closed their GT300 team. apr, who operated ARTA's GT300 programme, signed ARTA drivers Morio Nitta and Shinichi Takagi to drive their number 101 Toyota MR-S sponsored by Toy Story Racing (through Run'A Entertainment).

Driver changes

GT500

Tsugio Matsuda is a Japanese professional racing driver for Nissan and Kondo Racing in the Super GT Series, and a team ambassador for KCMG (auto racing team), KCMG in the Super Formula Championship, Super Formula Championship. He is the Super GT Series' all- ...

transferred from Honda to Nissan, where he joined two-time GT500 champion

Satoshi Motoyama Satoshi Motoyama (本山哲 - Motoyama Satoshi; born March 4, 1971) is a Japanese professional racing driver and team manager. He is best known for racing in the Super GT Series, formerly known as the All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship, All- ...

in the number 23

NISMO , abbreviated as Nismo, is a division of Nissan Motorsports & Customizing focused in motorsport and performance-oriented car models for Nissan. Nismo was initially a company, , formed in 1984 as a result of a merger of two motorsport departmen ...

entry. Likewise,

Sakon Yamamoto is a Japanese former racing driver and politician, who competed in Formula One between and . Yamamoto was a member of the House of Representatives of Japan from 2021 to 2024, representing Tōkai PR for the Liberal Democratic Party. Before ...

transferred from Toyota to Nissan to partner another two-time GT500 champion,

Michael Krumm Michael Krumm (born 19 March 1970) is a German former professional racing driver and current team manager at TOM'S in Super GT. Krumm is best-known for his successes in the All-Japan GT Championship, where he triumphed in the GT500 class in 1997 a ...

, in the NISMO number 22 car. *

Masataka Yanagida Masataka Yanagida (born 4 June 1979, in Tokyo) is a Japanese racing driver. Career The son of successful racing driver Haruhito Yanagida, a runner-up in the Japanese Touring Car Championship, Masataka began his career in karting in 1993. In 1997 ...

and two-time GT500 champion

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 ...

joined the new Kondo Racing team. Yanagida transferred from NISMO, and Comas transferred from Hasemi Motorsport. *

Naoki Yokomizo is a Japanese racing driver. Racing record Complete Formula Nippon results ( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap) Complete Super GT results Complete Intercontinental Le Mans Cup result ...

transferred from Toyota to Nissan and joined Hasemi Motorsport, who also signed reigning All-Japan Formula 3 champion

João Paulo de Oliveira João Paulo Lima de Oliveira (born 13 July 1981) is a Brazilian professional racing driver currently competing in the Japanese Super GT series and in the FIA World Endurance Championship driving for the Vanwall Racing Team. He won the Super GT G ...

for his Super GT series debut. * Kazuki Hoshino, son of Impul co-founder

Kazuyoshi Hoshino is a Japanese former racing driver and businessman. Motorsport career Hoshino's nickname was . He won the Japanese motocross national championships in the 90cc and 125cc classes for Kawasaki in 1968 before switching to cars as a Nissan facto ...

, stepped up to GT500 to join Team Impul. Hoshino replaced

Yuji Ide (born 21 January 1975) is a Japanese racing driver. He is the 2005 Formula Nippon runner-up and the 2010 Suzuka 1000km winner. He competed in Formula One with the Super Aguri team in 2006, but was demoted to third driver after four races and ...

, who signed with Super Aguri F1 Team. * Nakajima Racing and Honda signed two recent Formula 3 graduates to drive for them in 2006: Formula 3 Euroseries graduate

Loïc Duval Loïc Jean-Claude Duval (; born 12 June 1982) is a French professional racing driver racing for Peugeot Sport in the FIA World Endurance Championship. Duval is a former FIA WEC champion and a winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race, win ...

, and All-Japan F3 race winner

Hideki Mutoh is a Japanese race car driver from Tokyo who last raced in the 2022 Super GT Season for Autobacs Racing Team Aguri. Career Profile Mutoh is 172 cm (5 ft 8 in) tall and weighs 64 kg (141 lb). His blood type is AB Rh-positive. His hobbies i ...

. * 2005 GT300 championship runner-up Shinya Hosokawa was promoted to GT500 with Team Kunimitsu, partnering

Sébastien Philippe Sébastien Philippe (born 8 February 1975) is a French racing driver. He has competed in such series as Super GT and the French Formula Three Championship. Philippe won the All-Japan Formula Three Championship in 2000 and previously had won the 1 ...

. *

transferred from Honda to Toyota, and joined Toyota Team TOM'S in the number 36 car. His new teammate was 2002 champion

, who transferred from Toyota Team LeMans. * In exchange for Wakisaka,

Tatsuya Kataoka is a Japanese racing driver. He currently competes in the Super GT Super GT (stylized as SUPER GT) is a sports car racing series that began in 1993. Launched as the , generally referred to as the All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship (J ...

transferred from the defunct number 37 TOM'S team to join Toyota Team LeMans, alongside 2002 co-champion

Akira Iida is a Japanese racing driver currently competing in the Super GT series in GT300 class with LM corsa, one of the teams under Toyota Motorsport's GAZOO racing arm. Iida won the 2002 All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship GT500 class with Ess ...

. *

Takeshi Tsuchiya is a professional race car driver. Racing Record Complete Japanese Formula 3 results ( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap) 24 Hours of Le Mans results Complete Formula Nippon results ...

joined his father's team, Toyota Team Tsuchiya, after transferring from TOM'S. *

Katsuyuki Hiranaka is a Japanese race car driver. Career Katsuyuki began Kart racing, karting in 1995 when he was 14, and in 2002 moved to the All-Japan Formula Three Championship, as a member of the TOM'S team. In 2002, he achieved one fastest lap and came fif ...

was promoted to GT500 with Toyota Team SARD, joining

André Couto André Bragança Macedo e Couto ( zh, t=安德烈·高度; born 14 December 1976) is a Macau, Macanese

Schedule

Results

Standings

GT500 Drivers

;Scoring system: *Only the best five results in the first six races would be counted for the championship. *There were no points awarded for pole position and fastest lap in the final race.

Drivers and teams

GT500

GT300

Vehicle changes

GT500

GT300

Team changes

GT500

GT300

Driver changes

GT500

Schedule

Results

Standings

GT500 Drivers

Teams' standings

GT300 Drivers' championship

GT300 Teams' standings

References

External links