2003 All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship

The 2003 All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship was the eleventh season of Japan Automobile Federation GT premiere racing. It was marked as well as the twenty-first season of a JAF-sanctioned sports car racing championship dating back to the All Japan Sports Prototype Championship. The GT500 class champions of 2003 were the #23 Xanavi NISMO Nissan Skyline GT-R team driven by Satoshi Motoyama and Michael Krumm and the GT300 class champions were the #3 Hasemi Motorsports Nissan Fairlady Z driven by Masataka Yanagida and Mitsuhiro Kinoshita, neither of which had won a single race during the course of the season.

The 2003 season saw the introduction of a comprehensive overhaul of the series' vehicle regulations.[1][2] Manufacturers could now cut away the production vehicle's mainframe and replace the front and rear structures with pipe frame structures, which had also allowed for further suspension development.[2] The engine could now be mounted freely in any position or any orientation, and the transmission could now be mounted freely in any position, allowing for the introduction of transaxle units.[2] The size of the rear diffuser was reduced, and the underbody of the car had to be fitted with a flat bottom floor.[2]

Toyota had fitted their GT500 Supra with a 5.2 litre version of the naturally-aspirated 3UZ-FE V8 engine to replace the four-cylinder 3S-GTE. Honda retained the 3.5 litre C32B V6 engine, which was now mounted longitudinally behind the cockpit.[2] Nissan changed from the RB26DETT inline-six cylinder engine to the VQ30DETT V6 engine in the middle of 2002, and retained the lighter aluminium-block engine into 2003.

Drivers and teams

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GT500

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Team Make Car Engine No. Drivers Tyre Rounds
Esso Toyota Team LeMans Toyota Toyota Supra Toyota 3UZ-FE 5.2 L V8 1   Akira Iida B All
  Juichi Wakisaka All
Autobacs Racing Team Aguri Honda Honda NSX Honda C32B 3.5 L V6 8   Keiichi Tsuchiya B All
  Toshihiro Kaneishi 1–3, 5–8
  Katsutomo Kaneishi 4
Calsonic Team Impul Nissan Nissan Skyline GT-R Nissan VQ30DETT 3.0 L Twin Turbo V6 12   Yuji Ide B All
  Benoît Tréluyer All
G'Zox Mugen
G'Zox Dome Racing Team
Honda Honda NSX Honda C32B 3.5 L V6 16   Tom Coronel B All
  Daisuke Ito All
Takata Dome Racing Team Honda Honda NSX Honda C32B 3.5 L V6 18   Ryo Michigami B All
  Sébastien Philippe 1–6, 8
  Paolo Montin 7
Nismo Nissan Nissan Skyline GT-R Nissan VQ30DETT 3.0 L Twin Turbo V6 22   Masami Kageyama B All
  Richard Lyons All
23   Michael Krumm All
  Satoshi Motoyama All
Team Advan Tsuchiya Toyota Toyota Supra Toyota 3UZ-FE 5.2 L V8 25   Jérémie Dufour Y All
  Seiji Ara 1, 3–8
  Hideki Noda 2
Project Mu Kraft Toyota Toyota Supra Toyota 3UZ-FE 5.2 L V8 35   Naoki Hattori D All
  Shigekazu Wakisaka All
Toyota Team TOM'S Toyota Toyota Supra Toyota 3UZ-FE 5.2 L V8 36   Érik Comas M All
  Takeshi Tsuchiya All
37   Marco Apicella All
  Takuya Kurosawa All
au Toyota Team Cerumo Toyota Toyota Supra Toyota 3UZ-FE 5.2 L V8 38   Yuji Tachikawa B All
  Hironori Takeuchi All
Denso Toyota Team SARD Toyota Toyota Supra Toyota 3UZ-FE 5.2 L V8 39   Manabu Orido Y All
  Dominik Schwager All
R&D Sport Vemac Vemac RD350R Zytek ZV348 3.4 L V8 62   Shogo Mitsuyama D 2–6, 8
  Shinsuke Shibahara 2–6, 8
Mobil 1 Nakajima Racing Honda Honda NSX Honda C32B 3.5 L V6 64   Tsugio Matsuda B All
  Takashi Kogure 1–3
  André Lotterer 4–8
Hitotsuyama Racing McLaren McLaren F1 GTR BMW S70/2 6.0 L V12 76   Eiichi Tajima D All
  Yudai Igarashi 1–3
  Haruki Kurosawa 4–5
  Go Shimizu 6–8
JLOC Lamborghini Lamborghini Diablo Lamborghini L532 6.0 L V12 88   Hisashi Wada D All
  Naohiro Furuya 1–3
  Koji Yamanishi 4–8
Raybrig Team Kunimitsu with Mooncraft Honda Honda NSX Honda C32B 3.5 L V6 100   Hiroki Katoh B All
  Hidetoshi Mitsusada All

GT300

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Team Make Car Engine No. Drivers Tyre Rounds
Verno Tokai Dream28 Honda Honda NSX Honda C32B 3.4 L V6 2   Kazuho Takahashi Y All
  Akira Watanabe All
Hasemi Motorsport Nissan Nissan Fairlady Z Nissan VQ35DE 3.5 L V6 3   Mitsuhiro Kinoshita Y All
  Masataka Yanagida All
Team B-1 Vemac Vemac RD320R Honda C32B 3.4 L V6 5   Tetsuji Tamanaka Y All
  "Gō Mifune" All
RE Amemiya Racing Mazda Mazda RX-7 Mazda RE20B 2.0 L 3-rotor 7   Nobuteru Taniguchi Y All
  Takayuki Ohi All
A&S Racing Mosler Mosler MT900R Chevrolet LS1 6.2 L V8 9   Katsuhiko Tsutsui Y All
  Ichijo Suga 1–5, 7–8
  Naohiro Furuya 6
Team LeyJun RGS RGS Mirage GT-1 Chevrolet LS1 5.7 L V8 10   "OSAMU" D 1–6
  Shinichi Kurashima 1–3
  Tatsuya Mizutani 4
  Naohiro Furuya 5–6
Vemac Vemac RD320R Honda C32B 3.4 L V6 63   "OSAMU" 8
  Takamasa Nakagawa 8
Jim Gainer Racing Ferrari Ferrari 360 Ferrari F131B 3.6 L V8 11   Hideshi Matsuda Y All
  Tetsuya Tanaka All
Amprex Motorsports Mazda Mazda RX-7 Mazda RE20B 2.0 L 3-rotor 14   Tengku Djan Ley BF 5
  Tetsuya Yamano 5
BMW BMW M3 (E46) BMW M52 3.2 L I6 15   Genji Hashimoto BF All
  Charles Kwan 1–6
  Tetsuya Yamano 7–8
TOM'S Spirit Toyota Toyota MR-S (Rd. 1–6)
Toyota Celica (Rd. 8)
Toyota 3S-GTE 2.0 L Turbo I4 17   Masahiro Matsunaga Y 1–6, 8
  Masaoki Nagashima 1–6, 8
Racing Project Bandoh Toyota Toyota MR-S (Rd. 1–2)
Toyota Celica (Rd. 3–8)
Toyota 3S-GTE 2.0 L Turbo I4 19   Takayuki Aoki Y All
  Minoru Tanaka All
Hitotsuyama Racing BMW BMW M3 CSL BMW S50B32 3.2 L I6 21   Mikio Hitotsuyama D 1
  Takeshi Namekawa 1–2
  Yasushi Hitotsuyama 2–5
  Haruhiko Matsumoto 3–5
Team Taisan Porsche Porsche 911 GT3-R Porsche M96/77 3.6 L F6 24   Akihiro Asai Y All
  Atsushi Yogo 1, 3–8
  Adam Wilcox 2
26   Shinichi Yamaji All
  Kazuyushi Nishizawa All
Dodge Dodge Viper Competition Coupe Dodge Viper 8.0 L V10 55   Eiji Yamada All
  Takayuki Kinoshita All
Team Reckless Toyota Toyota MR-S Toyota 3S-GTE 2.0 L Turbo I4 31   Kota Sasaki BF All
  Satoshi Goto All
Dentaire ProJet Racing with apr Toyota Toyota MR-S Toyota 3S-GTE 2.0 L Turbo I4 34   Seigo Nishizawa BF All
  Koji Matsuda All
Autobacs Racing Team Aguri ASL ASL ARTA Garaiya Nissan SR20DET 2.0 L Turbo I4 43   Morio Nitta BF All
  Shinichi Takagi All
Auto Staff Racing Nissan Nissan Silvia (S15) Nissan SR20DET 2.0 L Turbo I4 51   Naofumi Omoto Y 1–6, 8
  Masanobu Kato 2–8
  Adam Wilcox 1
  Tsuyoshi Shirai 7
R&D Sport Porsche Porsche 911 GT3-R Porsche M96/77 3.6 L F6 61   Atsushi Katsumata D 2–3, 5–6
  Takeyuki Kishi 2–3
  Keiko Ihara 5–6
Team Gaikokuya Porsche Porsche 996 GT3-RS Porsche M96/77 3.6 L F6 69   Yutaka Yamagishi Y All
  Kei Idaka All
70   Yoshimi Ishibashi D All
  Go Shimizu 1–4
  Hiroshi Wada 5, 8
  Isao Isashi 6–7
SigmaTec Racing Team Toyota Toyota MR-S (Rd. 1–4)
Toyota Celica (Rd. 5–8)
Toyota 3S-GTE 2.0 L Turbo I4 71   Keita Sawa D All
  Guts Jyonai 1–5
  Tatsuya Kataoka 6–7
  Haruki Kurosawa 8
Cusco Racing Subaru Subaru Impreza WRX STI Subaru EJ20 2.0 L Turbo F4 77   Katsuo Kobayashi Y All
  Tatsuya Tanigawa All
Team Daishin Nissan Nissan Silvia (S15) Nissan SR20DET 2.0 L Turbo I4 81   Kazuki Hoshino Y All
  Tadao Uematsu All
Arktech Motorsports Porsche Porsche 996 GT3 Porsche M96/77 3.6 L F6 111   Hiroya Iijima D 2–6, 8
  Shigemitsu Haga 2–6, 8
910 Racing Porsche Porsche 996 GT3 RS Porsche M96/77 3.6 L F6 910   Akira Hirakawa Y All
  Yasuo Miyagawa All
911   Kazuyoshi Takamizawa 2, 4–6, 8
  Jukuchou Sunako 2, 4–6, 8

Schedule

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Round Race Circuit Date
1 GT Championship in TI   TI Circuit March 30
2 All Japan GT Fuji 500   Fuji Speedway May 4
3 SUGO GT Championship   Sportsland SUGO May 25
4 Malaysian JGTC in Fuji Speedway   Fuji Speedway July 13
5 Japan Special GT Cup   Fuji Speedway August 3
6 Motegi GT Championship Race   Twin Ring Motegi September 14
7 Japan GT in Kyushu 300 km   Autopolis October 26
8 Suzuka GT 300 km   Suzuka Circuit November 16
  • Due to the SARS outbreak, round 4 of the championship, which was planned to be held at the Sepang Circuit on June 20 and 21, was cancelled and later replaced by a round at Fuji Speedway. The replacement Fuji round featured a unique format of two heat races, each featuring a sprint race for one of the team's drivers. The combined results of both heats would determine the overall winner of the round.[3][4]

Season results

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Round Circuit GT500 Winning Team GT300 Winning Team
GT500 Winning Drivers GT300 Winning Drivers
1 TI Circuit #1 ESSO Team LeMans Toyota Supra #24 Advan Team Taisan Porsche 996
  Juichi Wakisaka
  Akira Iida
  Atsushi Yogo
  Akihiro Asai
2 Mt. Fuji #22 Motul NISMO Nissan Skyline GT-R #26 Advan Team Taisan Porsche 996
  Richard Lyons
  Masami Kageyama
  Shinichi Yamaji
  Kazuyuki Nishizawa
3 Sportsland SUGO #1 ESSO Team LeMans Toyota Supra #31 Team Reckless Toyota MR-S
  Juichi Wakisaka
  Akira Iida
  Kota Sasaki
  Satoshi Goto
4 Mt. Fuji Heat 1:
#12 Calsonic Impul Nissan Skyline GT-R
Heat 1:
#3 Hasemi Motorsports Nissan Fairlady Z
  Yuji Ide   Masataka Yanagida
Heat 2:
#12 Calsonic Impul Nissan Skyline GT-R
Heat 2:
#11 Team Gainer Ferrari F360
  Benoît Tréluyer   Tetsuya Tanaka
Overall:
#12 Calsonic Impul Nissan Skyline GT-R
Overall:
#55 Eclipse Taisan Advan Dodge Viper
  Yuji Ide
  Benoît Tréluyer
  Eiji Yamada
  Takayuki Kinoshita
5 Mt. Fuji #18 Takata Dome Honda NSX #19 WedsSport Toyota Celica
  Ryo Michigami
  Sebastien Philippe
  Takayuki Aoki
  Minoru Tanaka
6 Twin Ring Motegi #16 G-ZOX Dome Honda NSX #71 Sigmatech Toyota Celica
  Tom Coronel
  Daisuke Ito
  Tatsuya Kataoka
  Keita Sawa
7 Autopolis #39 Denso Team SARD Toyota Supra #71 Sigmatech Toyota Celica
  Manabu Orido
  Dominik Schwager
  Tatsuya Kataoka
  Keita Sawa
8 Suzuka Circuit #12 Calsonic Impul Nissan Skyline GT-R #19 WedsSport Toyota Celica
  Yuji Ide
  Benoît Tréluyer
  Takayuki Aoki
  Minoru Tanaka

Standings

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GT500 class

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Drivers' standings

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Scoring system
Position 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th
Points 20 15 12 10 8 6 4 3 2 1
Qualifying 1 1 1
Fastest Lap 1 1 1
Rank Driver TAI
 
FUJ
 
SUG
 
FUJ
 
FUJ
 
MOT
 
AUT
 
SUZ
 
PTS
1   Satoshi Motoyama
  Michael Krumm
2 4 3 5 2 11 5 3 86
2   Akira Iida
  Juichi Wakisaka
1 12 1 6 4 4 4 7 83
3   Masami Kageyama
  Richard Lyons
8 1 5 2 11 13 6 4 65
4   Benoît Tréluyer
  Yuji Ide
12 2 Ret 1 16 6 11 1 64
5   Érik Comas
  Takeshi Tsuchiya
6 10 2 7 5 2 8 8 61
6   Manabu Orido
  Dominik Schwager
14 3 14 3 7 7 1 9 57
7   Ryo Michigami 3 Ret 7 8 1 14 Ret 2 55
  Sébastien Philippe
9   Hironori Takeuchi
  Yuji Tachikawa
Ret DSQ 10 4 3 9 3 13 46
10   Tom Coronel
  Daisuke Ito
4 Ret 9 12 8 1 10 11 38
11   Tsugio Matsuda 5 6 8 13 9 Ret 2 12 36
12   Hiroki Katoh
  Hidetoshi Mitsusada
7 7 16 17 13 5 9 5 27
13   Jérémie Dufour 10 Ret 4 14 17 3 12 Ret 35
  Seiji Ara
15   Naoki Hattori
  Shigekazu Wakisaka
9 5 6 10 10 12 7 10 24
16   André Lotterer 13 9 Ret 2 12 19
17   Takashi Kogure 5 6 8 17
18   Marco Apicella
  Takuya Kurosawa
Ret 8 13 15 6 10 13 14 15
19   Keiichi Tsuchiya 11 Ret 11 11 12 8 Ret 6 9
  Toshihiro Kaneishi
20   Eiichi Tajima 13 9 12 18 14 Ret DNP 15 2
  Yudai Igarashi
20   Shogo Mitsuyama
  Shinsuke Shibahara
11 15 9 Ret Ret 16 2
  Katsutomo Kaneishi 11 0
  Haruki Kurosawa 18 14 0
  Hisashi Wada 15 Ret Ret 16 15 15 Ret Ret 0
  Koji Yamanishi 16 15 15 Ret Ret 0
  Naohiro Furuya 15 Ret Ret 0
  Go Shimizu Ret DNP 15 0
  Hideki Noda Ret 0
  Paolo Montin Ret 0
Rank Driver TAI
 
FUJ
 
SUG
 
FUJ
 
FUJ
 
MOT
 
AUT
 
SUZ
 
PTS
Colour Result
Gold Winner
Silver Second place
Bronze Third place
Green Points finish
Blue Non-points finish
Non-classified finish (NC)
Purple Retired (Ret)
Red Did not qualify (DNQ)
Did not pre-qualify (DNPQ)
Black Disqualified (DSQ)
White Did not start (DNS)
Withdrew (WD)
Race cancelled (C)
Blank Did not practice (DNP)
Did not arrive (DNA)
Excluded (EX)

Teams' standings

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For teams that entered multiple cars, only the best result from each round counted towards the teams' championship.[5]

Rank Team No. TAI
 
FUJ
 
SUG
 
FUJ
 
FUJ
 
MOT
 
AUT
 
SUZ
 
PTS
1 Nismo 22 8 1 5 2 11 13 6 4 106
23 2 4 3 5 2 11 5 3
2 Esso Toyota Team LeMans 1 1 12 1 6 4 4 4 7 83
3 Dome Racing Team 16 8 1 10 11 77
18 3 14Ret 7 8 1 14 14Ret 2
4 Toyota Team TOM'S 36 6 10 2 7 5 2 8 8 66
37 16Ret 8 13 15 6 10 13 14
5 Team Impul 12 12 2 17Ret 1 16 6 11 1 64
6 Toyota Team SARD 39 14 3 14 3 7 7 1 9 57
7 Toyota Team Cerumo 38 17DNS 18DSQ 10 4 3 9 3 13 46
8 Mobil 1 Nakajima Racing 64 5 6 8 13 9 16Ret 2 12 36
9 Team Kunimitsu with Mooncraft 100 7 7 16 17 13 5 9 5 27
10 Team Advan Tsuchiya 25 10 13Ret 4 14 17 3 12 17Ret 35
11 Kraft 35 9 5 6 10 10 12 7 10 24
12 Mugen 16 4 15Ret 9 12 13
13 Autobacs Racing Team Aguri 8 11 16Ret 11 11 12 8 15Ret 6 9
14 Hitotsuyama Racing 76 13 9 12 18 14 18Ret 15 2
14 R&D Sports 62 11 15 9 18Ret 17Ret 16 2
- JLOC 88 15 17Ret 18Ret 16 15 15 16Ret 18Ret 0
Rank Team No. TAI
 
FUJ
 
SUG
 
FUJ
 
FUJ
 
MOT
 
AUT
 
SUZ
 
PTS

GT300 class (Top 5)

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Drivers

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Rank Drivers Number/Team Points Wins
1   Masataka Yanagida
  Mitsuhiro Kinoshita
#3 Hasemi Motorsports Nissan Fairlady Z 77 0
2   Keita Sawa #71 Sigmatech Toyota Celica 72 2
3   Shinichi Yamaji
  Kazuyuki Nishizawa
#26 Advan Team Taisan Porsche 996 72 1
4   Takayuki Aoki
  Minoru Tanaka
#19 WedsSport Toyota Celica 63 2
5   Kota Sasaki
  Satoshi Goto
#31 Team Reckless Toyota MR-S 61 1

References

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  1. ^ "JGTC.net - 2001 GT INSIDE REPORT". supergt.net. Retrieved 2020-12-04.
  2. ^ a b c d e "JGTC.net | SPECIAL REPORT 2003 Vol.1". supergt.net. Retrieved 2020-12-04.
  3. ^ "2003 AUTOBACS JGTC Round 4 cancelled". Archived from the original on 10 February 2004.
  4. ^ "ハーフウェットの第1は井出が、ウェットの第2はトレルイエ! No.12 カルソニックスカイラインが富士を完全制覇!" [Ide Takes the First Half-Wet Race, Treluyer Takes the Second Wet Race! No.12 Calsonic Skyline Completely Conquers Fuji!]. supergt.net (in Japanese). 13 July 2003. Retrieved 14 September 2022.
  5. ^ "JGTC.net | 2003 Series Ranking". supergt.net. Retrieved 2021-10-16.
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