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22 Sep 2005, 16:46 (Ref:1414150) | #1 | |
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All Japan Sports Car Endurance Series is Goh!
It's official! (Courtesy of DSC)
The championship will be run to ACO regulations (initially 2004 regs moving to current regs in two years time) for both LMP's and GT's. Kazumichi Goh indicated in June that should the series come to fruition, it would be run on a 1000 kilometre race format. There will be a delegation from Japan at the Istanbul LMES round to both start training their scrutineers and to sound out teams who may be willing to sell their cars at the end of the season. Great news for endurance racing!! |
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22 Sep 2005, 16:50 (Ref:1414152) | #2 | |
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'teams who may be willing to sell their cars at the end of the season'
That will bring a smile to team owners faces. |
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22 Sep 2005, 16:56 (Ref:1414157) | #3 | ||
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22 Sep 2005, 20:29 (Ref:1414284) | #4 | ||
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the next step towards a World Le Mans Series?
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22 Sep 2005, 20:58 (Ref:1414308) | #5 | ||
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Sorry to be the grumpy one, but I dont see how this series will really work. Are they going to be a support for Super GT? Run with super gt maybe?
I cant imagine more than 6 cars tops, though I may be wrong. Unfortunately for us in the US it just means one more potentially cool series we wont see |
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22 Sep 2005, 21:17 (Ref:1414320) | #6 | ||
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Jim Garnier, Goh, and a bunch of others will show up.
I can see this as a series with just LMP1, and LMP2, run the day before of the Super GT series race, before it gets big. This will be a great series to see Nissan, Toyota, Honda, and other Japanesse manufactor's to get their programs going. Heck Nissan's involement with Rollcentre this year may turn into something big next year. Proton spends a lot of money on racing, what about a LMP program? All in all, I see this a great way to get new cars out, and prepare the world for a World Series of Endurance Racing. |
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22 Sep 2005, 22:18 (Ref:1414358) | #7 | |||
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Yeah just imagine 2 sportscar series in one country - one for tubeframed prototypes and the other not - Couldn't possibly work |
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22 Sep 2005, 22:37 (Ref:1414369) | #8 | |
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I can't see a World Le Mans series anytime soon.
We're more likely to see the current LMES, ALMS, JLMS set-up. Teams from each series could always take in extra races if they so wish. BTW, this new series will be for LMPs and ACO spec GTs, so the 550 and Lamborghinis from Super GT are likely to enter. The problem with Super GT is that without factory backing you cannot be competitive in GT500. So there are plenty good teams that compete in Super Taikyu and small protoype series in Japan. The fact that a delegation will be looking for cars at the Istanbul LMES round suggests there is significant interest. |
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22 Sep 2005, 22:58 (Ref:1414382) | #9 | |||
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Having said that, it isn't working terribly well in the States, is it. Still, SuperGT is too well-established for this to be an instant success. Maybe over time, though. |
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22 Sep 2005, 23:41 (Ref:1414398) | #10 | ||
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how long till ALMS switches to the Endurance format, and i see the Suzuka 1000km being maybe a Pre-slection for Le mans to the Winner if they race that race
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22 Sep 2005, 23:51 (Ref:1414402) | #11 | ||
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Good one Graham, but pitting these cars against Super GT is like putting anything up against NASCAR here...
I wish them luck, it could make some really cool cars and maybe another Japanese LM winner...but it is a very small country. |
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23 Sep 2005, 00:04 (Ref:1414408) | #12 | ||
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I can't see SuperGT being a problem for this series, the Japanese love their racing and another series which allows them to see cars that they wouldn't otherwise can only be a good thing in the long run.
The LMPs are exotic, European and fast, exactly the kind of image that does well over there. |
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23 Sep 2005, 00:06 (Ref:1414409) | #13 | ||
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They have Super GT and Formula Nippon, but there is room for another top level series. Previously they had Japanease Group C, Formula Nippon AND Group A/Super touring cars. This new series is not necessarily a Super GT rival, and you would think there is demand out there, otherwise it would not have got off the ground. |
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23 Sep 2005, 00:38 (Ref:1414421) | #14 | ||
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true...i really like the prospect it has for LM, if they let em in.
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23 Sep 2005, 05:46 (Ref:1414512) | #15 | ||
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I believe hat this could work well - And what's more the format would support two laudable and valuable purposes
1 - To attract more international racing efforts from the hugely important Japanese market and 2 - To provide another market for GT and sportscars - This alone could be massively significant in kickstarting Euro / US programmes, if only in the short-term by providing somewhere else that current (and soon to be ineligible) cars can race / be sold. |
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23 Sep 2005, 06:30 (Ref:1414519) | #16 | ||
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This will open up the LMP1 market for sure . For example , Nissan could do a lot worse than buying Shorty's 2 Dallara's and joining that series as a toe in the water effort .
Maybe others like Toyota and Mazda will throw in a little factory support . |
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23 Sep 2005, 07:28 (Ref:1414539) | #17 | ||
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Additionally it provides a third major market for companies manufacturing ACO regs cars to sell their cars to, which should encourage more manufacturers / Constructors to build new cars
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23 Sep 2005, 07:33 (Ref:1414540) | #18 | |
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It's hard to gauge how much interest there is in Japan at this stage. How many teams are waiting in the wings with a desire to get involved?
Certainly the availability of prototypes with a two year shelf life readily available for sensible money shows astute timing on behalf of the organisers. And the likes of Radical could find a lucrative market for their upcoming LMP2. Mr.Goh plans to run at least one Audi and has previously been linked to Radical, so there is already awareness of that marque in Japan. Dome (with Mugen power) now have a 'home' championship where they can run and develop their cars. How many potential buyers may have already shown interest in their new car? And then there's Nissan, Toyota, Honda, Mazda........! Could this series kickstart a big money assault on Le Mans? As Silk Cut Jaguar said, the Japanese love their motor racing. They also love Mr.Goh. His involvement could be the difference between success and failure. I find this announcement incredibly exciting. It may lead to nothing, but then again........ |
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23 Sep 2005, 08:03 (Ref:1414559) | #19 | ||
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23 Sep 2005, 08:36 (Ref:1414583) | #20 | |||
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23 Sep 2005, 09:07 (Ref:1414612) | #21 | ||
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If not, could KG be lined up for that position, or would his relationship with Lola rule that out? |
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23 Sep 2005, 10:09 (Ref:1414653) | #22 | |
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Radical has only a distributor for whole Pacific region, located in Malaysia.
Cause of the KG relations with Lola, any relation with other LMP makers would be out of question IMO. |
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23 Sep 2005, 10:34 (Ref:1414671) | #23 | ||
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A Japanese series (hopefully expanding into an Asia-Pacific one in time) makes sense at least from the prototype point of view, but I can't really see the GTs taking off given the rising profile of SuperGT in that region unless they're very carefully differentiated from the existing series.
The only way to have another successful GT series would be to really emphasise the endurance aspect, and have races longer than SuperGT - but since they're going for 1000km races rather than the 300km/500km the SuperGT boys do, it looks like this has been taken care of |
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23 Sep 2005, 13:21 (Ref:1414850) | #24 | ||
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I think this can only be a good thing - stops perfectly raceable cars from becoming museum items, in the short term it allows some Euro/US teams to sell the cars they can't use and use the money to buy new generation cars. Can't see SuperGT being rivalled too much - altho how would their pace compare to LM prototypes?
Reckon adding something stylish like a 1000km with a finish in the dark (like they tried at Silverstone) would attract the Japanese fans in a different way? If they keep racing weekends on different dates, then I reckon SuperGT and this new series can get along fine. |
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23 Sep 2005, 14:28 (Ref:1414902) | #25 | |
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An ACO-regs based series in what can only be described as the single most important auto manufacturing nation in the world can be nothing but a good thing. If anything it increases the visibility of ACO racing in Japan and therefore increases the chances that Japanese manufacturers will consider re-entering the ACO sportscar scene.
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