The collapse of the global auto market has not been good for motorsport around the world – and Japan took a particular hard hit with Honda and Toyota dropping out of F1 and Subaru stopping its WRC program. Nonetheless, when it comes to Japan's domestic motorsports scene, the Super GT Series had a very strong season in 2009. With new car debuts, tight competition, and new champions, '09 was a big year for Super GT.
Let's take a quick look at the season shall we?
The GT300 class saw a couple big car debuts this year, including the new Toyota Corolla Axio – seen here during its unveiling at Tokyo Auto Salon 2009. The car didn't have many good finishes this year, but it's to be expected for a debut season.
Coming later in the season was the new Subaru Legacy GT300 car. The Legacy ran just a couple of events in 2009, and will be back for a full season of competition in 2010.
In the GT300 season point standings, third place went the Jimgainer Advan Ferrari 430 of Tetsuya Tanaka and Katsuyuki Hiranaka. By the way, if the name Katsuyuki Hiranaka sounds familiar to you, that's because he was the driver of the 5Zigen Accord during its trip to the USA for time attack competition.
Second place in the GT300 championship went to the Mutiara Motors Amemiya RX7 driven by Ryo Orime and Nobteru Taniguchi, who switched to the Amemiya team for the 2009 season.
And the GT300 champions? Manabu Orido and Tatsuya Kataoka in the WedsSport/Bandoh Lexus IS350.
Not bad for a car that's been on the track for less than two seasons, eh?
Moving on to the GT500 class, third place in the championship went to Satoshi Motoyama and Benoit Treluyer in the Motul Autech GT-R. The '08 GT500 champion was a favorite for a repeat, but the competition was just too tough.
Taking both second place in the GT500 championship, and first place in the final race of the year at Twin Ring Motegi was the ARTA NSX of Ralph Firman and Takuya Izawa.
It was a fitting end for the NSX's run in Super GT. The NSX will be replaced by an all new Honda GT car for 2010.
And taking first place in the GT500 championship was the Petronas Tom's SC430 driven by Juichi Wakisaka and Andre Lotterer, who was racing in memory of his father who passed away earlier in the season.
The two champs, along with team manager Masanori Sekiya.
With the intense rivalry between the Toyota and Nissan teams, and a new Honda machine on the way, 2010 should be another exciting year for the GT500 class. The same goes for the diverse GT300 class.
For now though, the teams will enjoy some much-needed time off before the new season kicks off next spring.
-Mike Garrett