The Suzuka 500 km, was the second round of the 1988 All Japan Sports Prototype Championship was held at the Suzuka Circuit, on 10 April, in front of a crowd of approximately 24,000.

Report Entry A total of 26 cars were entered for the event, across three classes ranging from Local Prototypes to Group C Prototypes.

Qualifying The pairing of Vern Schuppan and George Fouché took pole position for Trust Racing Team, in their Porsche 962GTi ahead of the European partnership of Kenny Acheson and Emanuele Pirro for the Omron Racing Team, in their Porsche 962C, by over 1.06secs.

Race The race was held over 86 laps of the Suzuka circuit, a distance of 500 km (actual distance was 503.911 km). Eje Elgh and Maurizio Sandro Sala took the winner spoils for the Rothmans Porsche Schuppan Team, driving their Porsche 962C. The pair won in a time of 2hr 59:12.876mins., averaging a speed of 93.726 mph. Second place went to Vern Schuppan and George Fouché in the Trust Racing Team’s Porsche 962GTi who finished about 20seconds adrift. Also, the lead lap, was the third placed Porsche 962CK6 of Kris Nissen and Harald Grohs.

Classification

500km Suzuka

Class Winners are in Bold text.

Pos. No. Class Drivers Entrant Car — Engine Time, Laps Reason Out 1st 25 C Eje Elgh Maurizio Sandro Sala Rothmans Porsche Schuppan Team Porsche 962C 2:59:12.876 2nd 100 C Vern Schuppan George Fouché Trust Racing Team Porsche 962GTi 2:59:32.386 3rd 16 C Kris Nissen Harald Grohs Leyton House Racing Team Porsche 962CK6 3:00:31.704 4th 27 C Hideki Okada Stanley Dickens From A Racing Porsche 962C 3:01:30.755 5th 37 C Stefan Johansson Paolo Barilla Toyota Team Tom’s Toyota 88C 85 6th 23 C Kazuyoshi Hoshino Kenji Takahashi Nissan Motorsport Nissan R88C 84 7th 201 C Yoshimi Katayama Yojiro Tarada Takashi Yorino MazdaspeedMazda 767 81 8th 151 B Jirou Yoneyama Hideo Fukuyama British Barn Racing Team JTK-Ford 63C 79 9th 32 C Masahiro Hasemi Aguri Suzuki Nissan Motorsport Nissan R88C 77 10th 50 C Syuuroku Saski Tsunehisa Asai SARD SARD-Toyota MC88S 76 11th 87 A Yoshifumi Yamazaki Masaki Oohashi Yoshifumi Yamazaki West-Mazda 87S 74 12th 48 A Keiichi Mizutani Norizaku Tomiyasu Gorou Suzuki Oscar-Mazda SK85 74 13th77 A Kazuo Ukita Norihiro Takeda Hiroshi Yonetani Kazuo Ukita Oscar-Mazda SK85 74 14th 230 C Syuuji Fujii Terumitsu Fujieda Shizumatsu Racing Mazda 757 71 15th 9 A Keiichi Kosaka Masayoshi Furuya Souichirou Tanaka Keiichi Kosaka West-Mazda 85S 70 16th 14 A Junji Okada Mitsui Yamamoto RS Yamada West-Mazda 83S II 70 17th 30 A Seiji Imoto Seiji Imoto Tadao Yamauchi Auto In'nan Oscar-Mazda 8II 68 DNF 36 C Kiyotaka Nonomura Masanori Sekiya Toyota team TOM’S Toyota 88C 82 DNF DNF 101 B Masami Shirai Syunji Abe Unicorn Racing MCS Guppy-Mazda 73 DNF 15 C Naoki Nagasaka Kaoru Hoshino Masahiro Kageyama Leyton House Racing Team Porsche 962C 69 Suspension DNF 1 C Kunimitsu Takahashi Kazuo Mogi Advan Alpha Nova Porsche 962C 58 Engine DNF 6 A Seiichi Sodeyama Yoshiyuki Ogura West Racing Cars West-Mazda 87S 55Engine DNF 55 C Kenny Acheson Emanuele Pirro Omron Racing Team Porsche 962C 38 Engine DNF 85 C Takao Wada Anders Olofsson Person’s Racing Team March-Nissan 88S 31 Transmission DNF 31 A Nobuyoshi Horii Tadao Shin’ya Hajime Kajiwara Norii Racing Sport Oscar-Mazda SK85 13 Drive Shaft DNF 3 C Steven Andskär Andrew Gilbert-Scott Auto Beaurex Motorsport TOM’s-Toyota 86C 4 CV joint

Fastest lap: Hideki Okada/Stanley Dickens, 1:56.691secs. (112.98 mph)

References