The 1999 Le Mans Fuji 1000 km was an endurance race held on November 7, 1999 at the Fuji Speedway. It was organized by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO), who ran the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and the Japan Automobile Federation (JAF), who ran the JGTC race series.

Pre-race Since the mid-1990s, a large number of Japanese automobile manufacturers had begun to compete at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, including Honda, Toyota, and Nissan. Japanese constructors and engine builders were also competing as well, such as Dome, Tom's, and Mugen Motorsports. The ACO therefore was interested in the idea of creating a new sportscar series in Japan similar to the one that had recently been created in the United States, the American Le Mans Series. Thus, the Fuji 1000 km would serve as a one-off experiment to see how well a series would perform in Japan in the future, similar to the one-off 1998 Petit Le Mans for the ALMS.

With an agreement between the ACO and JAF, the race was agreed to take place at Fuji Speedway, and to combine the ACO's LMP, LMGTP, GTS, and GT class with the JAF's JGTC series GT500 and GT300 classes. The addition of JGTC machinery was done not only to entice Japanese teams into possibly moving into the ACO's sportscars, but also to help fill the field and to bring a crowd. However, the race did not count as part of the JGTC season, thus a full JGTC field was not expected since the race was optional. For the ACO classes, an incentive to bring competitors not only from Japan but also internationally was added in that, like Petit Le Mans, the winners in each class would earn automatic entry to the 2000 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Official results Class winners in bold. Cars failing to complete 70% of winner's distance marked as Not Classified (NC).

Pos Class No Team Drivers Chassis Tyres LapsTime/Retired Engine 1 LMP 23 Nissan Motorsports Érik Comas Satoshi Motoyama Masami Kageyama Nissan R391 2285:32:56.125 Nissan VRH50A 5.0 L V8 2 LMGTP 1 Toyota Motorsport Toyota Team Europe Ukyo Katayama Toshio Suzuki Keiichi Tsuchiya Toyota TS020 227 + 1 Lap Toyota R36V 3.6 L Turbo V8 3 LMP 61 Team Goh Dome Co. Ltd. Hiroki Katoh Juichi Wakisaka Dome-BMW V12 LM 222 + 6 Laps BMW S70 6.0 L V12 4 GT500 35 Matsumoto-Kiyoshi Team Tom's Pierre-Henri Raphanel Shinichi Yamaji Takeshi Tsuchiya Toyota Supra 211 + 17 Laps Toyota 3S-GTE 2.1 L Turbo I4 5 GT500 6 Team Le Mans Hideki Noda Wayne Gardner Toyota Supra 209 + 19 Laps Toyota 3S-GTE 2.1 L Turbo I4 6 GT500 32 cdmaOne Toyota Team Cerumo Takayuki Kinoshita Masahiko Kondo Hironori Takeuchi Toyota Supra 208 + 20 Laps Toyota 3S-GTE 2.1 L Turbo I4 7 GTS 60 Team Goh Chamberlain Engineering Seiji Ara Hideki Okada Chrysler Viper GTS-R 203 + 25 Laps Chrysler 8.0 L V10 8 GT500 11 Endless Sports Takao Wada Mitsuhiro Kinoshita Yasushi Kikuchi Nissan Skyline GT-R 200 + 28 Laps Nissan RB26DETT 2.8 L Turbo I6 9 GTS 16 Freisinger Motorsport Ernst Palmberger Yukihiro Hane Porsche 911 GT2 198 + 30 Laps Porsche 3.6 L Turbo Flat-6 10 GT 81 Team Taisan Advan Hideshi Matsuda Dominik Schwager Porsche 911 GT3-R 197 + 31 Laps Porsche 3.6 L Flat-6 11 GTS 69 Proton Competition Gerold Ried Christian Ried Manfred Jurasz Porsche 911 GT2 185 + 43 laps Porsche 3.6 L Turbo Flat-6 12 GTS 15 Freisinger Motorsport Wolfgang Kaufmann Bob Wollek Porsche 911 GT2 180 + 48 laps Porsche 3.6 L Turbo Flat-6 13 GT300 91 910 Racing Masamitsu Ishihara Keiichi Takahashi Tomohiko Sunako Porsche 911 3.8 RSR 178 + 50 Laps Porsche 3.8 L Flat-6 14 GT 65 Roock Sport System Japan Manabu Orido Takashi Suzuki Tomiko Yoshikawa Porsche 911 3.8 RSR 176 + 52 Laps Porsche 3.8 L Flat-6 15 GT 17 Freisinger Motorsport Katsunori Iketani Hiroyuki Nodi Porsche 911 GT2 167 + 61 Laps Porsche 3.6 L Turbo Flat-6 16NC GT300 70 Team Gaikokuya Yoshimi Ishibashi Patrick van Schoote Jun Harada Porsche 911 GT2 157 + 71 Laps Porsche 3.6 L Turbo Flat-6 17NC GT 80 Team Taisan Advan Eiichi Tajima Hiroaki Suga Morio Nitta Porsche 911 3.8 RSR 155 + 73 Laps Porsche 3.8 L Flat-6 18NC GT500 28 Tomei Sport Kazuyuki Nishizawa Takuya Kurosawa Peter Dumbreck Porsche 911 3.8 RSR 115 + 113 Laps Porsche 3.8 L Flat-6 19DNF LMP 24 Autoexe Motorsports Yojiro Terada Keichi Satou Franck Fréon Autoexe LMP99 158out of fuel Ford (Roush) 6.0 L V8 20DNF LMGTP 21 Hitotsuyama Racing Akira Iida Yasushi Hitotsuyama Mikio Hitotsuyama McLaren F1 GTR 147rear hub BMW S70 6.0 L V12 21DNF GTS 10 Ability Motorsports Hidehiko Asou Yasutaka Hinoi Atsushi Yogou Porsche 911 GT2 74transmission Porsche 3.6 L Turbo Flat-6 22DNF GTS 56 Chamberlain Engineering Vincent Vosse Xavier Pompidou Chrysler Viper GTS-R 40clutch Chrysler 8.0 L V10 23DNF GTS 64 Roock Racing System Japan Hisashi Wada Stéphane Ortelli Porsche 911 GT2 40mechanical Porsche 3.6 L Turbo Flat-6

Statistics Pole Position – #1 Toyota Motorsport – 1:16.349 Fastest Lap – #1 Toyota Motorsport – 1:18.806 Average Speed – 180.792 km/h

Post-race Although the race was very competitive for Japanese manufacturer's Nissan and Toyota, the event was not considered a major success. Only twenty three entrants showed in total, with just sixteen being in the ACO's classes. Although Nissan and Toyota both had more cars they could have entered, each chose only to compete with a single car. A large number of European teams which had been on the entry list also failed to show up, most notably BMW Motorsport with their V12 LMR prototypes.

Toyota and Nissan had both decided to abandon their sportscar efforts after 1999, meaning neither team took their automatic entries for Le Mans in 2000. European interest in the series was also lacking, especially since teams like BMW and Audi seemed more interested in competing in the American Le Mans Series. This left the proposed series with no major manufacturer involvement to help bring in fans as well as other competition.

Consideration for a Japanese series was revived once again in late 2000 when Don Panoz and the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) announced their intentions to expand upon their American Le Mans Series, a series endorsed by the ACO. Panoz would plan an Asian-Pacific Le Mans Series (APLMS), competing throughout the entire Pacific rim. An exhibition event, the Race of a Thousand Years, was held in Australia at the end of 2000 with mixed success, with another event played for Malaysia in 2001. However Panoz's other expansion outside the United States, the European Le Mans Series, would suffer from small fields and lack of competition throughout 2001. With a continued lack of interest from major manufacturers in teams in the ELMS as well as the APLMS, both series would be cancelled.

In 2006, the ACO was finally able to create a new sports car series in Japan with the launch of the Japan Le Mans Challenge. However, the series suffered from poor number of entries and was replaced by Asian Le Mans Series in 2009, but that series did not run another race again until 2013, by which time Toyota had returned to Le Mans with the TS030 Hybrid.

See also Fuji Grand Champion Series Fuji Long Distance Series Japan Le Mans Challenge

References

External links Le Mans Fuji 1000 Kilometers Results