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 (JGTC) era and the second season as the Super GT 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 season began on March 19 and ended on November 5, 2006, after 9 races.
Juichi Wakisaka, André Lotterer, and Toyota 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 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 and Hiroki Katoh of Cars Tokai Dream28.
Drivers and teams
GT500 Team Make Car Engine Drivers Tyre Rounds Toyota Team Cerumo Lexus Lexus SC430 GT500 Lexus 3UZ-FE 4.5 L V8 1 Toranosuke Takagi All Yuji Tachikawa All Ronnie Quintarelli 6 Hasemi Motorsport Nissan Nissan Fairlady Z GT500 Nissan VQ30DETT 3.0 L Twin Turbo V6 3 João Paulo de Oliveira All Naoki Yokomizo All Darren Manning 6 Mobil 1 Toyota Team LeMans Lexus Lexus SC430 GT500 Lexus 3UZ-FE 4.5 L V8 6 Akira Iida All Tatsuya Kataoka All Björn Wirdheim 6 Team Honda Racing Honda Honda NSX GT500 Honda C32B 3.5 L V6 8 Ralph Firman All Daisuke Ito All Toshihiro Kaneishi 6HondaHonda NSX GT500 Honda C32B 3.5 L V618 Ryō Michigami All Takashi KogureAll Katsutomo Kaneishi6 Team Impul Nissan Nissan Fairlady Z GT500 Nissan VQ30DETT 3.0 L Twin Turbo V6 12 Kazuki Hoshino All Benoît Tréluyer All Jérémie Dufour 6 Nismo Nissan Nissan Fairlady Z GT500 Nissan VQ30DETT 3.0 L Twin Turbo V6 22 Michael Krumm All Sakon Yamamoto 1–3 Richard Lyons 4–9 Fabio Carbone 6 23 Tsugio Matsuda All Satoshi Motoyama All Yuji Ide 6 Kondo Racing Nissan Nissan Fairlady Z GT500 Nissan VQ30DETT 3.0 L Twin Turbo V6 24 Masataka Yanagida All Érik Comas 1–4, 6 Seiji Ara 5–9 Toyota Team Tsuchiya Toyota Toyota Supra GT500 Toyota 3UZ-FE 4.5 L V8 25 Takeshi Tsuchiya All Manabu Orido All Hideki Noda 6 Nakajima Racing Honda Honda NSX GT500 Honda C32B 3.5 L V6 32 Loïc Duval All Hideki Mutoh All Toyota Team Kraft Lexus Lexus SC430 GT500 Lexus 3UZ-FE 4.5 L V8 35 Naoki Hattori All Peter Dumbreck All Eiichi Tajima 6 Toyota Team TOM'S Lexus Lexus SC430 GT500 Lexus 3UZ-FE 4.5 L V8 36 Juichi Wakisaka All André Lotterer All Adrian Sutil 6Stile CorseMaseratiMaserati MC12 GT1Maserati M144B/2 6.0 L V1251 Jan Magnussen None Seiji Ara None Toyota Team SARD Toyota Toyota Supra GT500 Toyota 3UZ-FE 4.5 L V8 66 André Couto All Katsuyuki Hiranaka All Soheil Ayari 6 Team Kunimitsu Honda Honda NSX GT500 Honda C32B 3.5 L V6 100 Shinya Hosokawa All Sébastien Philippe All
GT300 Team Make Car Engine Drivers Tyre Rounds Cars Tokai Dream28 Mooncraft Mooncraft Shiden Toyota 1UZ-FE 4.2 L V8 2 Kazuho Takahashi All Hiroki Katoh All Hiroki Yoshimoto 6 Team Mach Vemac Vemac RD320R Honda C32B 3.4 L V6 5 Tetsuji Tamanaka All Katsuhiko Tsutsui All Akira Watanabe 6 RE Amemiya Racing Mazda Mazda RX-7 Mazda RE20B 2.0 L 3-rotor 7 Hiroyuki Iiri 1, 3–9 Tetsuya Yamano 1, 3–9 Shinichi Yamaji 6 A&S Racing Mosler Mosler MT900R Chevrolet LS1 6.0 L V8 9 Osamu Nakajima 1–3, 5–9 Takaya Tsubobayashi 1 Masaki Tanaka 2–3, 5–9 JIM Gainer Ferrari Ferrari 360 Ferrari F131B 3.6 L V8 10 Hiromi Kozono 1–7, 9 Naofumi Omoto 1–7, 9 Eiji Yamada 6 11 Tetsuya Tanaka All Takayuki Aoki All Endless Sports Nissan Nissan Fairlady Z Nissan VQ35DE 3.5 L V6 13 Tomonobu Fujii All Masami Kageyama All Porsche Porsche 996 GT3-R Porsche M96/73 3.6 L F6 14 Mitsuhiro Kinoshita All Kyosuke Mineo All Jukuchou Sunako 6 Racing Project Bandoh Toyota Toyota Celica Toyota 3S-GTE 2.0 L Turbo I4 19 Koji Matsuda All Shigekazu Wakisaka All Team Taisan with Nishizawa Porsche Porsche 996 GT3-RS Porsche M96/77 3.6 L F6 26 Kazuyuki Nishizawa 2–3, 9 Shinichi Yamaji 2–3, 9 Direxiv Motorsport Vemac Vemac RD320R Honda C32B 3.4 L V6 27 Shogo Mitsuyama 1–6 Nobuteru Taniguchi 1–6 MOLA Nissan Nissan Fairlady Z Nissan VQ35DE 3.5 L V6 46 Kota Sasaki All Taku Bamba All 47 Hironobu Yasuda All Masaoki Nagashima All Toyota Team Cerumo Toyota Toyota Celica Toyota 3S-GTE 2.0 L Turbo I4 52 Hironori Takeuchi 1–3, 5–9 Koki Saga 1–3, 5–9 Keita Sawa 6 DHG Racing Ford Ford GT DHG D35806V 3.5 L V8 55 Daisuke Ikeda All Hidetoshi Mitsusada All Hiroaki Ishiura 6 R&D Sport Vemac Vemac RD320R Honda C32B 3.4 L V6 61 Shogo Mitsuyama 7–9 Nobuteru Taniguchi 7–9 Vemac RD408R Mugen MF458S 4.5 L V8 62 Shinsuke Shibahara All Hiroyuki Yagi 1–4 Haruki Kurosawa 5–9 Team Gaikokuya Porsche Porsche 996 GT3-RS Porsche M96/77 3.6 L F6 70 Yoshimi Ishibashi 1–4, 6 Akira Hirakawa 1–4 Yutaka Yamagishi 6–7 Isao Ihashi 6 Cusco Racing Subaru Subaru Impreza WRX STI Subaru EJ20 2.0 L Turbo F4 77 Katsuo Kobayashi 5, 7–9 Tatsuya Tanigawa 5 Yasushi Kikuchi 7–9 JLOC Lamborghini Lamborghini Murciélago RG-1 Lamborghini L535 6.0 L V12 87 Koji Yamanishi 1–3, 5–9 Hisashi Wada 1–3, 5–9 Atsushi Yogo 6 88 Marco Apicella 1–3, 5–9 Yasutaka Hinoi 1–3, 5–9 Naohiro Furuya 6 Ebbro Team Nova Vemac Vemac RD350R Zytek ZV348 4.0 L V8 96 Takuya Kurosawa All Tsubasa Kurosawa All apr Toyota Toyota MR-S Toyota 2GR-FE 3.5 L V6 101 Morio Nitta All Shinichi Takagi All 777 Minoru Tanaka All Kazuya Oshima All Keiichi Kobayashi 6Arktech MotorsportsPorschePorsche 986 Boxster Porsche M96/77 3.6 L F6 110 Hideshi Matsuda All Ichijo Suga All Takaya Tsubobayashi 6 Team LeyJun Porsche Porsche 996 GT3 Cup Porsche M96/77 3.6 L F6 111 Hiroya Iijima 1, 3, 6–7 Masaki Jyonai 1, 3, 6–7 Takeshi Namekawa 6 Team Bomex Dream28 Honda Honda NSX Honda C32B 3.4 L V6 666 Shogo Suho 1–7, 9 Junichiro Yamashita 1, 3–7, 9 Yasuhiro Takasaki 2 910 Racing With Team Ishimatsu Porsche Porsche 996 GT3 RSR Porsche M96/73 3.6 L F6 910 Tadao Uematsu 1–4, 6–7, 9 Yasushi Kikuchi 1–4, 6 Ryohei Sakaguchi 6, 9 Shinichi Yamaji 7
Vehicle changes
GT500
Toyota introduced the Lexus SC 430 as their new GT500 vehicle, replacing the fourth-generation Toyota Supra. 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 planned to enter the series with a Maserati MC12 GT1 driven by Seiji Ara and Jan Magnussen. 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 powered by a Toyota 1UZ-FE V8 engine. DHG Racing debuted in the series with a new racing version of the Ford GT 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 championship.
Team changes
GT500
Kondo Racing, owned by Japanese musician and former racing driver Masahiko Kondo, 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 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 (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 transferred from Honda to Nissan, where he joined two-time GT500 champion Satoshi Motoyama in the number 23 NISMO entry. Likewise, Sakon Yamamoto transferred from Toyota to Nissan to partner another two-time GT500 champion, Michael Krumm, in the NISMO number 22 car. Masataka Yanagida and two-time GT500 champion Érik Comas joined the new Kondo Racing team. Yanagida transferred from NISMO, and Comas transferred from Hasemi Motorsport. Naoki Yokomizo transferred from Toyota to Nissan and joined Hasemi Motorsport, who also signed reigning All-Japan Formula 3 champion João Paulo de Oliveira for his Super GT series debut. Kazuki Hoshino, son of Impul co-founder Kazuyoshi Hoshino, stepped up to GT500 to join Team Impul. Hoshino replaced Yuji Ide, 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, and All-Japan F3 race winner Hideki Mutoh. 2005 GT300 championship runner-up Shinya Hosokawa was promoted to GT500 with Team Kunimitsu, partnering Sébastien Philippe. André Lotterer transferred from Honda to Toyota, and joined Toyota Team TOM'S in the number 36 car. His new teammate was 2002 champion Juichi Wakisaka, who transferred from Toyota Team LeMans. In exchange for Wakisaka, Tatsuya Kataoka transferred from the defunct number 37 TOM'S team to join Toyota Team LeMans, alongside 2002 co-champion Akira Iida. Takeshi Tsuchiya joined his father's team, Toyota Team Tsuchiya, after transferring from TOM'S. Katsuyuki Hiranaka was promoted to GT500 with Toyota Team SARD, joining André Couto.
Schedule
Round Race Circuit Date 1 Suzuka GT 300 km Suzuka Circuit March 19 2 Okayama GT 300 km Race Okayama International Circuit April 9 3 Fuji GT 500 km Race Fuji International Speedway May 4 4 Japan GT Championship Malaysia Sepang International Circuit June 25 5 SUGO GT 300 km Race Sportsland Sugo July 23 6 International POKKA 1000km Suzuka Circuit August 20 7 Motegi GT 300 km Race Twin Ring Motegi September 10 8 Super GT in Kyushu GT 300 km Autopolis International Race Course October 15 9 Fuji GT 300 km Race Fuji International Speedway November 5
Results