1999 Le Mans Fuji 1000 km

The 1999 Le Mans Fuji 1000 km was an endurance race backed by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO), who ran the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and the Japan Automobile Federation (JAF), who ran the JGTC race series. It was run on November 7, 1999.

Layout of the Fuji Speedway (1987–2003)

Pre-race

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Since the mid-1990s, a large number of Japanese automobile manufacturers had begun to compete at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, including Honda, Toyota, and Nissan. Japanese constructors and engine builders were also competing as well, such as Dome, Tom's, and Mugen Motorsports. The ACO therefore was interested in the idea of creating a new sportscar series in Japan similar to the one that had recently been created in the United States, the American Le Mans Series. Thus, the Fuji 1000 km would serve as a one-off experiment to see how well a series would perform in Japan in the future, similar to the one-off 1998 Petit Le Mans for the ALMS.

With an agreement between the ACO and JAF, the race was agreed to take place at Fuji Speedway, and to combine the ACO's LMP, LMGTP, GTS, and GT class with the JAF's JGTC series GT500 and GT300 classes. The addition of JGTC machinery was done not only to entice Japanese teams into possibly moving into the ACO's sportscars, but also to help fill the field and to bring a crowd. However, the race did not count as part of the JGTC season, thus a full JGTC field was not expected since the race was optional. For the ACO classes, an incentive to bring competitors not only from Japan but also internationally was added in that, like Petit Le Mans, the winners in each class would earn automatic entry to the 2000 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Official results

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Class winners in bold. Cars failing to complete 70% of winner's distance marked as Not Classified (NC).

Pos Class No Team Drivers Chassis Tyres Laps Time/Retired
Engine
1 LMP 23   Nissan Motorsports   Érik Comas
  Satoshi Motoyama
  Masami Kageyama
Nissan R391 B 228 5:32:56.125
Nissan VRH50A 5.0 L V8
2 LMGTP 1   Toyota Motorsport
  Toyota Team Europe
  Ukyo Katayama
  Toshio Suzuki
  Keiichi Tsuchiya
Toyota TS020 M 227 + 1 Lap
Toyota R36V 3.6 L Turbo V8
3 LMP 61   Team Goh
  Dome Co. Ltd.
  Hiroki Katou
  Juichi Wakisaka
Dome-BMW V12 LM M 222 + 6 Laps
BMW S70 6.0 L V12
4 GT500 35   Matsumoto-Kiyoshi Team Tom's   Pierre-Henri Raphanel
  Shinichi Yamaji
  Takeshi Tsuchiya
Toyota Supra M 211 + 17 Laps
Toyota 3S-GTE 2.1 L Turbo I4
5 GT500 6   Team Le Mans   Hideki Noda
  Wayne Gardner
Toyota Supra B 209 + 19 Laps
Toyota 3S-GTE 2.1 L Turbo I4
6 GT500 32   cdmaOne Toyota Team Cerumo   Takayuki Kinoshita
  Masahiko Kondo
  Hironori Takeuchi
Toyota Supra B 208 + 20 Laps
Toyota 3S-GTE 2.1 L Turbo I4
7 GTS 60   Team Goh
  Chamberlain Engineering
  Seiji Ara
  Hideki Okada
Chrysler Viper GTS-R M 203 + 25 Laps
Chrysler 8.0 L V10
8 GT500 11   Endless Sports   Takao Wada
  Mitsuhiro Kinoshita
  Yasushi Kikuchi
Nissan Skyline GT-R Y 200 + 28 Laps
Nissan RB26DETT 2.8 L Turbo I6
9 GTS 16   Freisinger Motorsport   Ernst Palmberger
  Yukihiro Hane
Porsche 911 GT2 D 198 + 30 Laps
Porsche 3.6 L Turbo Flat-6
10 GT 81   Team Taisan Advan   Hideshi Matsuda
  Dominik Schwager
Porsche 911 GT3-R Y 197 + 31 Laps
Porsche 3.6 L Flat-6
11 GTS 69   Proton Competition   Gerold Ried
  Christian Ried
  Manfred Jurasz
Porsche 911 GT2 Y 185 + 43 laps
Porsche 3.6 L Turbo Flat-6
12 GTS 15   Freisinger Motorsport   Wolfgang Kaufmann
  Bob Wollek
Porsche 911 GT2 D 180 + 48 laps
Porsche 3.6 L Turbo Flat-6
13 GT300 91   910 Racing   Masamitsu Ishihara
  Keiichi Takahashi
  Tomohiko Sunako
Porsche 911 3.8 RSR Y 178 + 50 Laps
Porsche 3.8 L Flat-6
14 GT 65   Roock Sport System Japan   Manabu Orido
  Takashi Suzuki
  Tomiko Yoshikawa
Porsche 911 3.8 RSR Y 176 + 52 Laps
Porsche 3.8 L Flat-6
15 GT 17   Freisinger Motorsport   Katsunori Iketani
  Hiroyuki Nodi
Porsche 911 GT2 D 167 + 61 Laps
Porsche 3.6 L Turbo Flat-6
16
NC
GT300 70   Team Gaikokuya   Yoshimi Ishibashi
  Patrick van Schoote
  Jun Harada
Porsche 911 GT2 Y 157 + 71 Laps
Porsche 3.6 L Turbo Flat-6
17
NC
GT 80   Team Taisan Advan   Eiichi Tajima
  Hiroaki Suga
  Morio Nitta
Porsche 911 3.8 RSR Y 155 + 73 Laps
Porsche 3.8 L Flat-6
18
NC
GT500 28   Tomei Sport   Kazuyuki Nishizawa
  Takuya Kurosawa
  Peter Dumbreck
Porsche 911 3.8 RSR Y 115 + 113 Laps
Porsche 3.8 L Flat-6
19
DNF
LMP 24   Autoexe Motorsports   Yojiro Terada
  Keichi Satou
  Franck Fréon
Autoexe LMP99 Y 158 out of fuel
Ford (Roush) 6.0 L V8
20
DNF
LMGTP 21   Hitotsuyama Racing   Akira Iida
  Yasushi Hitotsuyama
  Mikio Hitotsuyama
McLaren F1 GTR D 147 rear hub
BMW S70 6.0 L V12
21
DNF
GTS 10   Ability Motorsports   Hidehiko Asou
  Yasutaka Hinoi
  Atsushi Yogou
Porsche 911 GT2 Y 74 transmission
Porsche 3.6 L Turbo Flat-6
22
DNF
GTS 56   Chamberlain Engineering   Vincent Vosse
  Xavier Pompidou
Chrysler Viper GTS-R M 40 clutch
Chrysler 8.0 L V10
23
DNF
GTS 64   Roock Racing System Japan   Hisashi Wada
  Stéphane Ortelli
Porsche 911 GT2 Y 40 mechanical
Porsche 3.6 L Turbo Flat-6
[1]

Statistics

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  • Pole Position – #1 Toyota Motorsport – 1:16.349
  • Fastest Lap – #1 Toyota Motorsport – 1:18.806
  • Average Speed – 180.792 km/h

Post-race

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Although the race was very competitive for Japanese manufacturer's Nissan and Toyota, the event was not considered a major success. Only twenty three entrants showed in total, with just sixteen being in the ACO's classes. Although Nissan and Toyota both had more cars they could have entered, each chose only to compete with a single car. A large number of European teams which had been on the entry list also failed to show up, most notably BMW Motorsport with their V12 LMR prototypes.

Toyota and Nissan had both decided to abandon their sportscar efforts after 1999, meaning neither team took their automatic entries for Le Mans in 2000. European interest in the series was also lacking, especially since teams like BMW and Audi seemed more interested in competing in the American Le Mans Series. This left the proposed series with no major manufacturer involvement to help bring in fans as well as other competition.

Consideration for a Japanese series was revived once again in late 2000 when Don Panoz and the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) announced their intentions to expand upon their American Le Mans Series, a series endorsed by the ACO. Panoz would plan an Asian-Pacific Le Mans Series (APLMS), competing throughout the entire Pacific rim. An exhibition event was held in Australia at the end of 2000 with mixed success, with another event played for Malaysia in 2001. However Panoz's other expansion outside the United States, the European Le Mans Series, would suffer from small fields and lack of competition throughout 2001. With a continued lack of interest from major manufacturers in teams in the ELMS as well as the APLMS, both series would be cancelled.

In 2006, the ACO was finally able to create a new sports car series in Japan with the launch of the Japan Le Mans Challenge. However, the series suffered from poor number of entries and was replaced by Asian Le Mans Series in 2009, but that series did not run another race again until 2013, by which time Toyota had returned to Le Mans with the TS030 Hybrid.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Fuji 1000 Kilometres 1999 - Race Results - Racing Sports Cars". www.racingsportscars.com. Retrieved 2020-02-19.
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