2009 Super GT Series

The 2009 Autobacs Super GT Series was the 16th season of the Japan Automobile Federation Super GT Championship. The season opener on March 22, was moved to Okayama, due to the continued renovation of Suzuka in preparation for the 2009 Japanese Grand Prix. The season finale on November 8 also was moved to Motegi, instead of Fuji. Due to the worldwide economic crisis, race weekends were two days instead of three.

André Lotterer and Juichi Wakisaka claimed the GT500 title in their Petronas TOM'S Lexus SC430. The team also won their respective teams title. In GT300, Racing Project Bandoh's Manabu Orido and Tatsuya Kataoka won the title by three points from Nobuteru Taniguchi and Ryo Orime.

Development in Car Factories

GT500 Class

Originally the three makers agreed to unify engine specification into a 3.4 L V8 (the same configuration of Formula Nippon). However, due to the aforementioned economic crisis, Nissan found difficulties to develop a suitable engine for their GT-R, and chose to bear performance ballast while using the same engine last year. Honda continued to use their midshiped-NSX, and bear performance ballast as the regulation originally outlaws midship cars, this is also their last Super GT year with NSX, which they announced they will use a new vehicle (HSV-010) in 2010 season.

Aston Martin joined the series with a Le-mans spec. Aston Martin DBR9, it is the first Aston Martin car participated the series history (including JGTC), also the first European and non-Honda/Nissan/Toyota car in GT500 since the 2006 season (Maserati MC12 did participate the pre-season test in 2006 season but withdraw from the series later). The DBR9 will only be run at the first round, and the two rounds at Fuji.

GT300 Class

The apr team, which has used the Toyota MR-S for a long time have discontinued to use MR-S in this season, replacing them with midshipped Toyota Corolla Axio instead.

The Cusco, the only team using an AWD car (Subaru Impreza), exits the series as they want to concentrate on off-road events. However, Subaru cars do not take absence from the series as R&D Sport uses a Legacy B4 since Race 6.

Thunder Asia Racing, a team from Singapore, spot races the Sepang race with a Mosler MT900R. Their full participation in 2010 season was confirmed after the 2009 season ends.

Drivers and teams

GT500

Team	Make	Car	No.	Drivers	Tyre	Rounds
Nismo	Nissan	Nissan GT-R	1	Satoshi Motoyama	B	All
				Benoît Tréluyer		1–5, 7–9
				Michael Krumm		6
Hasemi Motorsport	Nissan	Nissan GT-R	3	Ronnie Quintarelli	M	All
				Hironobu Yasuda		All
Lexus Team LeMans ENEOS	Lexus	Lexus SC430	6	Daisuke Ito	B	All
				Björn Wirdheim		All
Autobacs Racing Team Aguri	Honda	Honda NSX	8	Ralph Firman	B	All
				Takuya Izawa		All
Team Impul	Nissan	Nissan GT-R	12	Tsugio Matsuda	B	All
				Sébastien Philippe		All
Keihin Real Racing	Honda	Honda NSX	17	Toshihiro Kaneishi	B	All
				Koudai Tsukakoshi		All
				Katsutomo Kaneishi		6
Team Yoshiki and Dome Project	Honda	Honda NSX	18	Ryo Michigami	B	All
				Takashi Kogure		All
Team Nova	Aston Martin	Aston Martin DBR9	21	Akihiro Tsuzuki	Y	1, 3, 7
				Takeshi Tsuchiya		1, 3, 7
Kondo Racing	Nissan	Nissan GT-R	24	João Paulo de Oliveira	Y	All
				Seiji Ara		All
Nakajima Racing	Honda	Honda NSX	32	Loïc Duval	D	All
				Yuhki Nakayama		All
Lexus Team Kraft	Lexus	Lexus SC430	35	Hiroaki Ishiura	B	All
				Kazuya Oshima		All
Lexus Team Petronas TOM'S	Lexus	Lexus SC430	36	Juichi Wakisaka	B	All
				André Lotterer		All
Lexus Team ZENT Cerumo	Lexus	Lexus SC430	38	Yuji Tachikawa	B	All
				Richard Lyons		All
Lexus Team SARD	Lexus	Lexus SC430	39	Kohei Hirate	D	All
				André Couto		All
Team Kunimitsu	Honda	Honda NSX	100	Yuji Ide	B	All
				Shinya Hosokawa		1–2, 4–7, 9
				Kosuke Matsuura		3, 8

GT300

Team	Make	Car	No.	Drivers	Tyre	Rounds
Cars Tokai Dream28	Mooncraft	Mooncraft Shiden-Toyota	2	Hiroki Katoh	Y	All
				Kazuho Takahashi		1
				Hiroki Yoshimoto		2–9
Avanzza Rosso	Vemac	Vemac RD320R-HPD C32B	4	Yoshihiro Ito	K	6
				Subaru Yamamoto		6
				Michito Uezumi		6
				Yoshihiro Ito	Y	9
				Igor Sushko		9
			666	Shogo Suho	Y	All
				Junichiro Yamashita		All
				Takashi Miyamoto		3, 6
Team Mach	Vemac	Vemac RD320R-Porsche M96.77	5	Tetsuji Tamanaka	Y	All
				Akazame Oyaji		All
M7 RE Amemiya Racing	Mazda	Mazda RX-7	7	Nobuteru Taniguchi	Y	All
				Ryo Orime		All
Jim Gainer Racing	Ferrari	Ferrari F360	10	Masayuki Ueda	Y	All
				Masataka Kawaguchi		All
		Ferrari F430	11	Tetsuya Tanaka		All
				Katsuyuki Hiranaka		All
Racing Project Bandoh	Lexus	Lexus IS350	19	Tatsuya Kataoka	Y	All
				Manabu Orido		All
Team Taisan	Porsche	Porsche 996 GT3-RS	26	Haruki Kurosawa	Y	1–4, 6–7, 9
				Tsubasa Abe		1–3, 5–9
				Katsuhiko Tsutsui		4, 6, 8
				Tsubasa Kurosawa		5
Team Takeuchi with Shift	Lexus	Lexus IS350	30	Kota Sasaki	K	1–3
				Naoya Yamano		1–3
			52	Kota Sasaki		4–9
				Naoya Yamano		4–6
				Yuhi Sekiguchi		6–9
apr	Toyota	Toyota Corolla Axio	31	Yuya Sakamoto	Y	All
				Hideki Yamauchi		1–4
				Kyosuke Mineo		5–9
				Takamori.com		6
			74	Takuto Iguchi	M	All
				Yuji Kunimoto		All
Hankook KTR	Porsche	Porsche 997 GT3-RSR	33	Mitsuhiro Kinoshita	H	3, 5, 7
				Masami Kageyama		3, 5, 7
Autobacs Racing Team Aguri	ASL	ASL Garaiya	43	Morio Nitta	M	All
				Shinichi Takagi		All
MOLA	Nissan	Nissan Fairlady Z	46	Kazuki Hoshino	Y	All
				Masataka Yanagida		All
Tomei Sports	Porsche	Porsche 997 GT3-RSR	55	Yutaka Yamagishi	Y	1–7, 9
				Hiroshi Koizumi		1–7, 9
R&D Sport	Subaru	Subaru Legacy B4	62	Shogo Mitsuyama	Y	6–7, 9
				Tetsuya Yamano		6–7, 9
JLOC	Lamborghini	Lamborghini Murcielago RG-1	66	Koji Yamanishi	Y	All
				Atsushi Yogo		All
				Marco Apicella		3
		Lamborghini Gallardo RG-3	87	Hiroyuki Iiri		All
				Hisashi Wada		All
			88	Hideshi Matsuda		All
				Yuya Sakamoto		All
Thunder Asia Racing	Mosler	Mosler MT900R	69	Melvin Choo	Y	4
				Martin Short		4
Team Daishin	Ferrari	Ferrari F430	81	Takayuki Aoki	Y	All
				Tomonobu Fujii		All
				Koji Matsuda		6
Arktech Motorsports	Porsche	Porsche Boxster	110	Kim Han Bong	K	1–3
				Daisuke Ikeda		1, 8
				Tatsuya Tanigawa		2–3, 5, 8
				Takashi Ohi		5
		Porsche Boxster	111	Takaya Tsubobayashi		1–3
				Igor Sushko		1
				Daisuke Ikeda		2–4
				Tojiro Azuma		4
			112	Takashi Ohi		7, 9
				Yoshiaki Nakayama		7
				Keita Sawa		8–9
				Aaron Caratti		8
Studie GLAD Racing	BMW	BMW Z4M	808	Shozo Tagahara	Y	1–3, 5–9
				Yasushi Kikuchi		1–3, 5–7
				Taku Bamba		6, 8–9

Schedule

Round	Race	Circuit	Date
1	Okayama GT 300 km	Okayama International Circuit	March 22
2	Suzuka GT 300 km	Suzuka Circuit	April 19
3	Fuji GT 400 km	Fuji Speedway	May 4
4	Super GT International Series Malaysia	Sepang International Circuit	June 21
5	SUGO GT 300 km	Sportsland SUGO	July 26
6	Pokka GT Summer Special	Suzuka Circuit	August 23
7	Fuji GT 300 km	Fuji Speedway	September 13
8	Autopolis GT 300 km	Autopolis	October 18
9	Motegi GT 250 km	Twin Ring Motegi	November 8

As a measure of cost reduction, the two longest race, as well as the final race in the series' distance in the series was shortened in this season. This included the trimming of the traditional 1000km race in Suzuka to 700 km. However, to avoid 1-pit strategy that caused unfairness to some teams, teams were required to pit twice in the Fuji 400 km race.

Season Winners

Rd	Circuit	GT500 Winning Team	GT300 Winning Team	Results
		GT500 Winning Drivers	GT300 Winning Drivers
1	Okayama	#24 HIS Kondo Racing GT-R	#19 WedsSport IS350	Results
		João Paulo de Oliveira Seiji Ara	Manabu Orido Tatsuya Kataoka
2	Suzuka	#38 ZENT Cerumo SC430	#33 Hankook Porsche	Results
		Yuji Tachikawa Richard Lyons	Mitsuhiro Kinoshita Masami Kageyama
3	Mt. Fuji	#1 MOTUL Autech GT-R	#43 ARTA Garaiya	Results
		Satoshi Motoyama Benoît Tréluyer	Morio Nitta Shinichi Takagi
4	Kuala Lumpur	#3 Hasemi Tomica Ebbro GT-R	#2 I.M Jihan Co.Ltd•Apple Shiden	Results
		Ronnie Quintarelli Hironobu Yasuda	Hiroki Katoh Hiroki Yoshimoto
5	Sportsland SUGO	#1 MOTUL Autech GT-R	#33 Hankook Porsche	Results
		Satoshi Motoyama Benoît Tréluyer	Mitsuhiro Kinoshita Masami Kageyama
6	Suzuka	#35 Kraft SC430	#46 S Road Mola Z	Results
		Hiroaki Ishiura Kazuya Oshima	Kazuki Hoshino Masataka Yanagida
7	Mt. Fuji	#8 ARTA NSX	#81 Daishin Ferrari F430	Results
		Ralph Firman Takuya Izawa	Takayuki Aoki Tomonobu Fujii
8	Autopolis	#36 Petronas TOM'S SC430	#11 Jim Gainer Advan F430	Results
		Juichi Wakisaka André Lotterer	Tetsuya Tanaka Katsuyuki Hiranaka
9	Motegi	#8 ARTA NSX	#81 Daishin Ferrari F430	Results
		Ralph Firman Takuya Izawa	Takayuki Aoki Tomonobu Fujii

Standings

GT500 Drivers

Scoring system

Rank Driver OKA SUZ FUJ SEP SUG SUZ FUJ AUT MOT PTS 1 Juichi Wakisaka André Lotterer 11 2 2 6 7 8 3 1 2 88 2 Ralph Firman Takuya Izawa 3 14 3 3 14 12 1 4 1 81 3 Satoshi Motoyama 13 11 1 8 1 6 2 2 14 78 4 Benoît Tréluyer 13 11 1 8 1 2 2 14 73 5 Toshihiro Kaneishi Koudai Tsukakoshi 5 6 12 2 6 10 4 Ret 3 51 6 Ryo Michigami Takashi Kogure 2 5 13 12 3 4 8 5 10 50 7 Ronnie Quintarelli Hironobu Yasuda 12 13 7 1 9 2 6 8 12 49 8 João Paulo de Oliveira Seiji Ara 1 8 4 5 13 11 13 3 11 48 9 Hiroaki Ishiura Kazuya Oshima 9 7 5 9 12 1 7 7 9 44 10 Yuji Tachikawa Richard Lyons 6 1 9 10 10 3 10 11 13 41 11 Tsugio Matsuda Sébastien Philippe 4 3 15 7 8 5 15 Ret 7 36 12 Daisuke Ito Björn Wirdheim 10 4 6 14 5 Ret 4 10 4 35 13 Yuji Ide 8 12 11 4 4 9 12 6 8 29 14 André Couto Kohei Hirate 15 10 10 13 2 7 11 12 5 27 15 Shinya Hosokawa 8 12 4 4 9 12 8 24 16 Loïc Duval Yuhki Nakayama 7 9 8 11 11 Ret 9 9 6 18 17 Kosuke Matsuura 11 6 5 18 Michael Krumm 6 5 19 Katsutomo Kaneishi 10 1 Akihiro Tsuzuki Takeshi Tsuchiya 14 14 14 0 Rank Driver OKA SUZ FUJ SEP SUG SUZ FUJ AUT MOT PTS

Colour Result Gold Winner Silver 2nd place Bronze 3rd place Green Points finish Blue Non-points finish Non-classified finish (NC) Purple Retired (Ret) Red Did not qualify (DNQ) Did not pre-qualify (DNPQ) Black Disqualified (DSQ) White Did not start (DNS) Withdrew (WD) Race cancelled (C) Blank Did not participate (DNP) Excluded (EX)

GT300 Drivers

Scoring system

Rank Driver OKA SUZ FUJ SEP SUG SUZ FUJ AUT MOT PTS 1 Manabu Orido Tatsuya Kataoka 1 8 5 2 5 6 4 3 3 85 2 Nobuteru Taniguchi Ryo Orime 3 2 3 3 11 7 DNS 2 2 82 3 Tetsuya Tanaka Katsuyuki Hiranaka 4 4 Ret 8 3 5 2 1 4 79 4 Takayuki Aoki Tomonobu Fujii 12 6 2 DNS 4 8 1 18 1 71 5 Morio Nitta Shinichi Takagi 2 5 1 10 9 2 7 4 14 71 6 Hiroki Katoh 6 7 9 1 2 3 5 16 16 63 7 Kazuki Hoshino Masataka Yanagida 7 3 6 4 6 1 9 8 7 62 8 Hiroki Yoshimoto 7 9 1 2 3 5 16 16 58 9 Mitsuhiro Kinoshita Masami Kageyama 1 1 6 45 10 Takuto Iguchi Yuji Kunimoto 5 9 8 16 8 4 12 7 5 32 11 Yuya Sakamoto 9 11 7 6 10 18 15 5 6 23 12 Koji Yamanishi Atsushi Yogo 18 Ret 18 5 13 17 3 11 8 20 13 Tsubasa Abe 10 10 4 7 16 14 9 9 18 14 Haruki Kurosawa 10 10 4 Ret 16 14 9 12 15 Kyosuke Mineo 10 18 15 5 6 12 16 Hideki Yamauchi 9 11 7 6 11 17 Kota Sasaki 8 17 11 7 15 9 13 13 10 10 18 Tetsuji Tamanaka Akazame Oyaji 13 12 10 12 16 Ret 8 6 15 9 19 Naoya Yamano 8 17 11 7 15 9 9 20 Kazuho Takahashi 6 5 21 Tsubasa Kurosawa 7 4 22 Yuhi Sekiguchi 9 13 13 10 3 23 Masayuki Ueda Masataka Kawaguchi DNS 16 15 9 20 15 17 19 13 2 24 Katsuhiko Tsutsui Ret 16 9 2 25 Hideshi Matsuda Yuya Sakamoto Ret 13 19 Ret 12 10 10 12 11 2 26 Shozo Tagahara Ret DNQ Ret Ret Ret Ret 10 Ret 1 27 Taku Bamba Ret 10 Ret 1 Rank Driver OKA SUZ FUJ SEP SUG SUZ FUJ AUT MOT PTS

Colour Result Gold Winner Silver 2nd place Bronze 3rd place Green Points finish Blue Non-points finish Non-classified finish (NC) Purple Retired (Ret) Red Did not qualify (DNQ) Did not pre-qualify (DNPQ) Black Disqualified (DSQ) White Did not start (DNS) Withdrew (WD) Race cancelled (C) Blank Did not participate (DNP) Excluded (EX)

External links

• Super GT official website (English)