The 2006 Japan Le Mans Challenge was the inaugural season of the Japan Le Mans Challenge, a series created by SERO, and run under sanctioning from the ACO, to follow 24 Hours of Le Mans rules. It began at Sportsland SUGO on May 14 and ended at Okayama International Circuit on October 29, after three races.

The series was open to Le Mans Prototypes, divided into the LMP1 and LMP2 classes, and grand tourer-style racing cars in the GT1 and GT2 classes.

2006 Pre-season In the buildup to the first season of JLMC, it was apparent from the start that unlike the Le Mans Series in Europe, JLMC would not start off with great success.

A lack of commitment from major Japanese teams, especially those involved in Super GT, meant that the entry list for the season was small.

An official pre-season test at Sportsland Sugo saw only 8 cars showing up. Even with this, more teams promised to eventually make it to the JLMC grid, including Team Goh, who had earned fame when they won the 2005 24 Hours of Le Mans with the conquering Audi R8.

However, of the teams that did show up, few had quality machinery. The entire LMP2 class was small sportscars that did not actually fit LMP2 regulations. LMP1 was able to boast some machinery that fit LMP rules with a Zytek 05S while there was promise of a new Courage LC70 for Mugen Motorsports on the way as the season went on.

GT classes was made up of a large amount of machinery from Super GT, with an ex-Prodrive Ferrari 550-GTS Maranello and JLOC's Super GT Lamborghini Murcielago RG-1 joined by a privateer Mosler MT900R in GT1.

GT2 was also only able to claim a few competitive entries, with some two Porsche 911 GT3s being mixed with a privateer cars that did not fully reach ACO GT2 specs.

These competitors allowed for the entry list of a mere 12 competitors for the first round at Sportsland Sugo.

Schedule

Race Circuit Date 1 Sportsland Sugo 1000 km Sportsland SUGO May 14 2 Motegi 1000 km Twin Ring Motegi July 2 3 Okayama 1000 km Okayama International Circuit October 29

Entries

LMP1 Team Chassis Engine Tyres Drivers Rounds Team MugenCourage LC70Mugen MF458S 4.5 L V816 Seiji Ara2–3 Haruki Kurosawa2–3 Hitotsuyama Racing Zytek 05S Zytek ZB408 4.0 L V8 21 Hiroki KatohAll Hideki NodaAll Oscar SK5.2Toyota ?65 Toshiya Itou3 Tomoyuki Kawasaki3 Tatsuya Mizutani3Oscar SK93Mazda 13B 1.3 L 3-Rotor66 Takahiko ShimazawaAll Kenji Takeya1–2 Hiroshi Ota2–3 Masaya Kono1 Kazuya Murase3Oscar SK93Toyota ?111 Tatsuya Hashimoto3 Kota Sasaki3 Yasumasa Wakahara3Source:

LMP2 Team Chassis Engine Tyres Drivers Rounds MYZDallara GC21Toyota 3S-GTE 2.0 L I43 Syougo SuhouAll Masayuki YamamotoAll Junichiro YamashitaAll 4 Tomonobu FujiiAll Yuuya SakamotoAll Yoshihisa NamekataAll Oscar SK5.2 Oscar RS.KK-LM Toyota 3S-GTE 2.0 L I415 Ryohei SakaguchiAll Masayuki UedaAll Motoaki Ishikawa2–3Oscar SK5.2Toyota ?52 Masayoshi Furuya3 Hisashi Tsukahara3 Tomokuni Waki3 Aim SportsDallara GC21Toyota 3S-GTE 2.0 L I418 Yuuji AsouAll Masaru TomizawaAll Shinsuke YamazakiAll Cosmos RacingOscar SK5.2Toyota ?37 Takuya Andou3 Naoto Chikada3 Youichirou Suzuki3Source:

LMGT1 Team Chassis Engine Tyres Drivers Rounds Team LeyJunMosler MT900RChevrolet LS1 6.0 L V89 Hiroya IijimaAll Osamu NakajimaAll Masaki TanakaAll Hitotsuyama Racing Ferrari 550-GTS Maranello Ferrari F133 A 6.0 L V12 20 Naoki HattoriAll Tatsuya KataokaAll Eiichi TajimaAll JLOCLamborghini Murcielago RG-1Lamborghini L535 6.0 L V1288 Yasutaka Hinoi1, 3 Hisashi Wada1, 3 Koji Yamanishi1, 3Source:

LMGT2 Team Chassis Engine Tyres Drivers Rounds Team TakamizawaPorsche 996 GT3-RSPorsche M96/77 3.8 L Flat-65 Tomohiko SunakoAll Kazuyoshi TakamizawaAll Akihiko Tsutsumi1–2 Akazama Oyaji3 Proto Works Mazda RX-7 Mazda 20B 2.0 L 3-Rotor 7 Naoko HagiwaraAll Yuuki Kawai1 Atsuko Oomura2 Sakiko Tsuji3Porsche 996 GT3-RSPorsche M96/77 3.8 L Flat-677 "Dragon"3 Yoshiaki Nakayama3 Motoyoshi Yoshida3 Team NRFMazda RX-8Mazda 13B-MSP 1.3 L 2-Rotor8 Jun Nakamura3 Fumihiko Nishida3 Ryuuichirou Ootsuka3 Team NoproMazda RoadsterMazda BP 1.8 L I417 Toshihiko Nogami2 Yutaka Seki2 Porsche 996 GT3-RSRPorsche M96/79 3.8 L Flat-627 Kouji AoyamaAll Morio NittaAll Shinichi TakagiAll Sunburst RushPorsche 964Porsche M64/03 3.6 L Flat-6930 Takeshi Inui3 Hitoshi Kakiuchi3 Yutaka Matsushima3Source:

Race results Bold indicates overall winners.

Rnd Circuit LMP1 Winning Team LMP2 Winning Team LMGT1 Winning Team LMGT2 Winning Team LMP1 Winning Drivers LMP2 Winning Drivers LMGT1 Winning Drivers LMGT2 Winning Drivers 1 Sugo #66 #18 Aim Sports #20 Hitotsuyama Racing #27 Takahiko Shimazawa Masaya Kono Kenji Takeya Shinsuke Yamakazi Yuji Aso Masaru Tomizawa Tatsuya Kataoka Naoki Hattori Eiichi Tajima Koji Aoyama Shinichi Takagi Morio Nitta 2 Motegi #66 #4 MYZ #20 Hitotsuyama Racing #27 Takahiki Shimazawa Hiroshi Ohta Kenji Takeya Yuya Sakamoto Yoshihisa Namekata Tomonobu Fujii Tatsuya Kataoka Naoki Hattori Eiichi Tajima Koji Aoyama Shinichi Takagi Morio Nitta 3 Okayama #16 Team Mugen #4 MYZ #88 JLOC #930 Sunburst Rush Seiji Ara Haruki Kurosawa Yuya Sakamoto Yoshihisa Namekata Tomonobu Fujii Koji Yamanishi Yasatuka Hinoi Wada-Q Yutaka Matsushima Takeshi Inui Masashi Kakuichi

Championship standings

Points system Points are awarded to finishers based on how many cars were entered in each class. For team's championships, only the top finishing car in a team scores points towards the championship. For classes with a more than five cars, points are scored as follows: Position 1st  2nd  3rd  4th  5th  6th  7th  8th Points108654321 For classes with a fewer than five cars, points are scored as follows: Position 1st  2nd  3rd  4th  5th Points5432.52

Drivers' Championship

LMP1 standings Drivers Team SUG MOT OKA Points 1 Takahiko Shimazawa 1 1 4 12.5 2 Kenji Takeya 1 1 10 3 Hiroshi Ohta 1 4 7.54 Seiji Ara Haruki Kurosawa Team Mugen NC 1 55 Masaya Kono 1 56 Hiroki Katoh Hideki Noda Hitotsuyama Racing Ret Ret 2 47 Tatsuya Hashimoto Kota Sasaki Yasumasa Wakahara 3 38 Kazuya Murase 4 2.59 Toshiya Itou Tomoyuki Kawasaki Tatsuya Mizutani 5 2Bold – Pole Italic – Fastest Lap

LMP2 standings Drivers Team SUG MOT OKA Points 1 Yuya Sakamoto Yoshihisa Namekata Tomonobu Fujii MYZ NC 1 1 15 2 Tomokuni Waki Masayoshi Furuya Hisashi Tsukahara 2 8 3 Shinsuke Yamazaki Yuji Aso Masaru Tomizawa Aim Sports 1 Ret Ret 54 Syougo Suhou Masayuki Yamamoto Junichiro Yamashita MYZ Ret 2 Ret 45 Ryohei Sakaguchi Masayuki Ueda 2 Ret NC4NC Motoaki Ishikawa Ret NC0NC Takuya Andou Naoto Chikada Youichirou Suzuki Cosmos Racing NC0

LMGT1 standings Drivers Team SUG MOT OKA Points 1 Tatsuya Kataoka Naoki Hattori Eiichi Tajima Hitotsuyama Racing 1 1 313 2 Osamu Nakajima Masaki Tanaka Hiroya Iijima Team Leyjun 2 2 212 3 Koji Yamanishi Yasutaka Hinoi Hisashi Wada JLOC Ret 15

LMGT2 standings Drivers Team SUG MOT OKA Points 1 Koji Aoyama Shinichi Takagi Morio Nitta 1 1 218 2 Yutaka Matsushima Masashi Kakiuchi Takeshi Inui Sunburst Rush 110 3 Kazuyoshi Takamizawa Tomohiko Sunako Team Takamizawa 2 2 Ret8 Akihiko Tsutsumi 2 24 "Dragon" Yoshiaki Nakayama Motoyoshi Yoshida Proto Works 365 Naoko Hagiwara Proto Works 3 3 NC66 Yuuki Kawai Proto Works 337 Atsuko Oomura Proto Works 33NC Sakiko Tsuji Proto Works NC0NC Akazama Oyaji Team Takamizawa Ret0NC Jun Nakamura Fumihiko Nishida Ryuuichirou Ootsuka Team NRF Ret0NC Toshihiko Nogami Yutaka Seki Team Nopro DNQ0 Teams' Championship

LMP1 standings Team SUG MOT OKA Points 1 1 1 313 2 Team Mugen NC 15 3 Hitotsuyama Racing Ret Ret 24Bold – Pole Italic – Fastest Lap

LMP2 standings Team SUG MOT OKA Points 1 MYZ NC 1 115 2 2 Ret 212 3 AIM Sports 1 Ret Ret5NC Cosmos Racing NC0

LMGT1 standings Team SUG MOT OKA Points 1 Hitotsuyama Racing 1 1 313 2 Team LeyJun 2 2 212 3 JLOC Ret 15

LMGT2 standings Team SUG MOT OKA Points 1 1 1 218 2 Proto Works 3 3 312 3 Sunburst Rush 110 4 Team Takamizawa 2 2 Ret 8NC Team NRF Ret0NC Team Nopro DNQ0

References

External links JLMC Official Website (English) JLMC Points Standings World Sports Racing Prototypes – Results