The 1997 Japanese Touring Car Championship season was the 13th edition of the series. It began at Fuji Speedway on 6 April and finished after eight events, also at Fuji Speedway on 2 November. The championship was won by Osamu Nakako, driving for Mugen Honda.
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Teams & Drivers Team Car No. Drivers Rounds Mugen Honda Honda Accord 1 Naoki Hattori 8 Object T Toyota Corona EXiV 11 Takahiko Hara All Nismo Nissan Primera GT 12 Kazuyoshi Hoshino All Asano Racing Service BMW 318i 13 Takeo Asano 8 Mooncraft Mugen Honda Honda Accord 14 Ryō Michigami All Mugen Honda Honda Accord 15 Takuya Kurosawa All 16 Osamu Nakako All Endless Sport BMW 318i 18 Mitsuhiro Kinoshita 1, 8 Racing Project Bandoh Toyota Corona EXiV 19 Katsutomo Kaneishi All Hitotsuyama Racing BMW 318i 21 Yasushi Hitotsuyama 1, 3-5, 8 Mikio Hitotsuyama 2, 6-7 Object T Toyota Corona EXiV 22 Hidetoshi Mitsusada 8 Nismo Nissan Primera GT 23 Satoshi Motoyama All Tsuchiya Engineering Toyota Chaser 24 Keiichi Tsuchiya 8 Toyota Corona EXiV 25 Masami Kageyama All Mooncraft Mugen Honda Honda Accord 33 Hideki Okada All Auto Tech Racing BMW 318i 35 Akihiko Nakaya 5-6 Toyota Team TOM's Toyota Chaser 36 Masanori Sekiya All Toyota Corona EXiV 37 Michael Krumm 1-4 Toyota Chaser 5-8 Toyota Team Cerumo Toyota Chaser 38 Hironori Takeuchi All Toyota Corona EXiV 39 Juan Manuel Silva 1-6 Toyota Chaser 7-8 Dandelion Racing Toyota Corona EXiV 68 Tetsuya Tanaka All Team Something Toyota Corolla AE110 72 Masahiro Matsunaga 1-6, 8 Minoru Tanaka 7 HKS Opel Team Japan Opel Vectra 87 Akira Iida All
Calendar Round Circuit Date Pole position Fastest lap Winning driver Winning teamRef 1 R1 Fuji Speedway, Shizuoka 6 April Satoshi Motoyama Races cancelled due to adverse weather conditions. R2 Ryō Michigami 2 R3 TI Circuit Aida, Okayama 11 May Osamu Nakako Satoshi Motoyama Takuya Kurosawa Mugen Honda R4 Osamu Nakako Osamu Nakako Osamu Nakako Mugen Honda 3 R5 Sportsland SUGO, Miyagi 25 May Michael Krumm Kazuyoshi Hoshino Michael Krumm Toyota Team TOM's R6 Michael Krumm Hideki Okada Kazuyoshi Hoshino Nismo 4 R7 Suzuka Circuit, Mie 8 June Takuya Kurosawa Takuya Kurosawa Takuya Kurosawa Mugen Honda R8 Takuya Kurosawa Satoshi Motoyama Satoshi Motoyama Nismo 5 R9 Mine Central Circuit, Yamaguchi 13 July Satoshi Motoyama Osamu Nakako Osamu Nakako Mugen Honda R10 Satoshi Motoyama Ryō Michigami Osamu Nakako Mugen Honda 6 R11 Sendai Hi-Land Raceway, Miyagi 7 September Akira Iida Kazuyoshi Hoshino Satoshi Motoyama Nismo R12 Akira Iida Kazuyoshi Hoshino Akira Iida HKS Opel Team Japan 7 R13 Tokachi International Speedway, Hokkaidō 21 September Satoshi Motoyama Michael Krumm Takuya Kurosawa Mugen Honda R14 Takuya Kurosawa Ryō Michigami Takuya Kurosawa Mugen Honda 8 R15 Fuji Speedway, Shizuoka 2 November Naoki Hattori Osamu Nakako Osamu Nakako Mugen Honda R16 Naoki Hattori Naoki Hattori Kazuyoshi Hoshino Nismo
Championship Standings Points were awarded 15, 12, 9, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 to the top 10 finishers in each race, with no bonus points for pole positions or fastest laps. Drivers would have counted their best 12 scores, but with the cancellation of the first two races of the season, only the ten best were counted. Pos Driver FUJ AID SUG SUZ MIN SEN TOK FUJ Pts 1 Osamu Nakako C C 2 1 8 Ret 4 5 1 1 4 10 Ret 2 1 Ret 107 2 Takuya Kurosawa C C 1 4 5 6 1 2 Ret 6 7 6 1 1 10 4 102 3 Satoshi Motoyama C C 4 2 3 3 Ret 1 DSQ 3 1 Ret 2 4 6 DSQ 100 4 Kazuyoshi Hoshino C C 6 14 2 1 2 6 4 11 2 Ret 3 Ret 8 1 95 5 Ryō Michigami C C 3 3 Ret Ret 5 4 2 2 13 2 5 3 5 12 88 6 Masami Kageyama C C 5 6 9 8 3 3 5 7 5 7 6 11 4 13 61 7 Katsutomo Kaneishi C C Ret 10 Ret 7 11 10 3 14 Ret 5 4 5 3 3 52 8 Akira Iida C C 10 Ret 4 5 6 Ret Ret DNS 3 1 12 DNS 13 Ret 43 9 Hironori Takeuchi C C 9 5 6 9 7 7 8 9 8 4 8 8 11 6 43 10 Michael Krumm C C 7 9 1 Ret 10 Ret 6 4 Ret DNS Ret 10 12 Ret 35 11 Juan Manuel Silva C C 8 13 7 2 13 8 Ret 12 6 Ret Ret 7 16 Ret 31 12 Hideki Okada C C 12 Ret Ret 4 8 Ret Ret 5 9 Ret 11 9 7 5 30 13 Masanori Sekiya C C 13 7 11 Ret 12 9 Ret DNS Ret 3 9 6 18 8 25 14 Naoki Hattori 2 2 24 15 Tetsuya Tanaka C C 11 8 10 10 16 11 7 Ret Ret 8 Ret DNS 9 Ret 14 16 Takahiko Hara C C 15 11 Ret 13 9 Ret Ret 10 11 DNS 7 12 15 7 11 17 Akihiko Nakaya Ret 8 Ret DNS 3 18 Masahiro Matsunaga C C 14 12 12 11 14 12 9 15 10 Ret NC Ret 3 19 Mikio Hitotsuyama 16 Ret 12 9 13 14 2 20 Mitsuhiro Kinoshita C C Ret 9 2 21 Yasushi Hitotsuyama C C 13 12 15 13 10 13 DNS 11 1 22 Minoru Tanaka 10 13 1 23 Keiichi Tsuchiya 14 10 1 24 Takeo Asano 17 Ret 0 NC Hidetoshi Mitsusada Ret DNS 0 Pos Driver FUJ AID SUG SUZ MIN SEN TOK FUJ PtsBold - Pole Italics - Fastest lap
References