The JEC/JSPC was founded at the zenith of the new Group C prototype category, considered by many to be the golden age of endurance racing around the world.Īnd in those years of Group C’s heyday, Porsche were the gold standard. The All-Japan Endurance Championship, later to become the All-Japan Sports Prototype Championship (JSPC), was established in 1983 and is the forerunner to what is now Super GT. The tide was turning for endurance sports car racing in Japan, and the following year, the Suzuka 1000km would become a crown jewel event of its very first professional sports car racing championship.ġ966: #2 Toyota 2000GT – Sachio Fukuzawa & Tomohiko Tsutsumiġ967: #6 Porsche Carrera 6 – Shintaro Taki & Kenjiro Tanakaġ968: #1 Toyota 7 – Sachio Fukuzawa & Hiroshi Fushidaġ969: #1 Tudor Porsche Carrera 6 – Tomohiko Tsutsumi & Jiro Yoneyamaġ970: #19 Nissan Fairlady Z432 – Kawakami Nishino & Koji Fujitaġ971: #12 Porsche Carrera 10 – Yoshimasa Kawaguchi & Hiroshi Fushidaġ972: #1 Toyota Celica 1600GT-R – Harukuni Takahashi & Kenichi Takeshitaġ973: #3 Nissan Fairlady 240Z-R – Kunimitsu Takahashi & Kenji Tohiraġ980: #12 Red Carpet Racing Team March 75-S/Mazda – Hironobu Tatsumi & Naoki Nagasakaġ981: #6 Kremer Racing Porsche 935 K3 – Bob Wollek & Henri Pescaroloġ982: #1 Auto Beaurex Motorsports BMW M1 – Fumiyasu Sato & Naoki Nagasaka There, the French duo of Henri Pescarolo and Bob Wollek, two legendary figures of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, stole the win on a dramatic final lap pass to become the first foreign team and drivers to win the Suzuka 1000km.ġ982 saw another Group 5 icon, the BMW M1, win the race outright with Auto Beaurex Motor Sports. In 1980, the race also began anew with its now-traditional late August date on the calendar.īy then, the race was piquing the interest of teams abroad, and European racing stalwarts Kremer Racing brought a bright pink Porsche 935 – the greatest of the cars from the Group 5 super touring era – to the 1981 race. It would return in 1980, and would see a March-Mazda 75S prototype from the Fuji Grand Champion Series win the event in its return year. In 1973, Kunimitsu Takahashi began his legend at this race with a win in his Nissan Fairlady 240Z – the second win for Nissan, after a privateer-led victory in 1970.Īfter that ’73 race, the 1000km would take a lengthy hiatus due to the global energy crisis. By the following year, however, the popular French-Japanese pilot would lose his life testing the next iteration of the fabled Toyota-7.įukuzawa, Tsutsumi, and Fushida would be the first drivers to win multiple Suzuka 1000kms over the first years of the race itself. I would win it in 1968, giving Hiroshi Fushida his first win at the event, and making Fukuzawa the first two-time winner of the race. So when one of the Japanese manufacturers pulled off the win, it was considered a great achievement. In the first few years of the race, the Porsche Carrera 6 and Carrera 10 prototypes were the cars to beat in all of endurance sports car racing, Suzuka included, winning three of the first six runnings of the race. The two Toyota young stars completed the first 1000km in 8 hours, 2 minutes time. The very first Suzuka 1000km was held on June 26, 1966, and won by the legendary Toyota 2000GT of Sachio Fukuzawa and Tomohiko Tsutsumi. So, here’s a look through the first 27 runnings of the event from 1966 to 1998 (available on Super GT World here) – a span of over 30 years that encompasses many landmark eras of endurance sports car racing, including the Group C sports prototypes that starred in the 1980s and early 1990s. if you missed Part 1, which focused on GT300, you can see it here. Here’s the second part of Super GT World’s Suzuka 1000km Hall of Fame feature, this time looking at the overall winners before the GT500 era.
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