2011 Super GT Series

The 2011 Autobacs Super GT Series was the nineteenth season of the Japan Automobile Federation Super GT Championship including the All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship (JGTC) era and the seventh season as the Super GT series. It also marked the twenty-ninth season of a JAF-sanctioned sports car racing championship dating back to the All Japan Sports Prototype Championship. It is a series for Grand Touring race cars divided into two categories: GT500 and GT300. The season began on May 1 and ended on November 13, 2011 after 8 races and 1 non-championship race. The season was due to start on April 2, but the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami caused its postponement.

2011 Super GT Series
Previous:	2010	Next:	2012

2011 GT500 champions, #46 S-Road MOLA Nissan GT-R.

2011 GT300 champions, #4 Goodsmile Hatsune Miku BMW Z4 GT3.

In the GT500 class, MOLA won the championship in their first ever season in the GT500 class. The MOLA drivers also scored some notable achievements with this title victory: Masataka Yanagida, who had won the GT300 title in 2003 and 2010, becomes the first (and so far only) driver to win both the GT500 and the GT300 class, while Ronnie Quintarelli would win his first out of four GT500 titles in this season. In the GT300 class, Goodsmile Racing & Studie shocked everyone by winning the championship with the Hatsune Miku itasha-liveried BMW Z4 GT3, giving series veteran Nobuteru Taniguchi and Taku Bamba their first title in this series. It also marked the first championship title for FIA GT3-specification cars in this series.

Schedule

Suzuka

Motegi

Autopolis

Fuji

SUGO

Okayama

2011 Japanese venues

The provisional calendar was released on 8 August 2010. The Autopolis round which was absent the previous season was added to the calendar while the Suzuka race was reduced to a 700 km Endurance race only. Like the previous season, the non-Super GT pointed race JAF Grand Prix was to be raced as a conclusion to the season.[1]

However, due to the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami on March 11, a large part of the season was modified to cope with the situation.

The calendar was updated on 15 April 2011.

Round	Race	Circuit	Date
1	Okayama GT	Okayama International Circuit	May 22[2]
2	Fuji GT 1	Fuji Speedway	May 1
3	Super GT International Series Malaysia	Sepang International Circuit	June 19
4	Sugo GT	Sportsland SUGO	July 30
5	40th Pokka GT Summer Special	Suzuka Circuit	August 21
6	Fuji GT 2	Fuji Speedway	September 11
7	Autopolis GT	Autopolis	October 2
8	Motegi GT	Twin Ring Motegi	October 16
NC	All Star Series	Fuji Speedway	November 12
			November 13

Impact of Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami

As a response of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, the racing calendar and regulations were given a lot of modifications as a response to the national policy of energy conservation.

• The Okayama GT event, originally to be held on April 2 was postponed to 22 May despite damage to the Okayama International Circuit being minimal.[2] The GT Association would still consider it as the 1st Round. The postponement of the Fuji Round was put under consideration as well.
• All race distances will be trimmed from 300 km to 250 km, other than the first Fuji race will change from 500 km to 300 km, and the Suzuka round from 700 km to 500 km. In addition, the Suzuka round will be only run in day sessions.
• Pitworks at nights are limited to a shorter period of time. Overnight works are not allowed between qualifying and the race.

Drivers and teams

GT500

Team	Make	Car	#	Drivers	Tyre	Round
Weider Honda Racing	Honda	Honda HSV-010 GT	1	Takashi Kogure	B	All
				Loïc Duval		All
Lexus Team LeMans ENEOS	Lexus	Lexus SC430	6	Daisuke Itō	B	All
				Kazuya Oshima		All
Autobacs Racing Team Aguri	Honda	Honda HSV-010 GT	8	Hideki Mutoh	B	All
				Takashi Kobayashi		All
Team Impul	Nissan	Nissan GT-R	12	Tsugio Matsuda	B	All
				João Paulo de Oliveira		All
Keihin Real Racing	Honda	Honda HSV-010 GT	17	Toshihiro Kaneishi	B	All
				Koudai Tsukakoshi		All
Lexus Team WedsSport BANDOH	Lexus	Lexus SC430	19	Tatsuya Kataoka	Y	All
				Seiji Ara		All
Nismo	Nissan	Nissan GT-R	23	Satoshi Motoyama	B	All
				Benoît Tréluyer		All
Kondō Racing	Nissan	Nissan GT-R	24	Hironobu Yasuda	Y	All
				Björn Wirdheim		All
Nakajima Racing	Honda	Honda HSV-010 GT	32	Ryo Michigami	D	All
				Yuhki Nakayama		All
Lexus Team Kraft	Lexus	Lexus SC430	35	Juichi Wakisaka	B	All
				André Couto		All
Lexus Team Petronas TOM'S	Lexus	Lexus SC430	36	André Lotterer	B	All
				Kazuki Nakajima		All
Lexus Team ZENT Cerumo	Lexus	Lexus SC430	38	Yuji Tachikawa	B	All
				Kohei Hirate		All
Lexus Team SARD	Lexus	Lexus SC430	39	Hiroaki Ishiura	M	All
				Takuto Iguchi		All
MOLA	Nissan	Nissan GT-R	46	Masataka Yanagida	M	All
				Ronnie Quintarelli		All
Team Kunimitsu	Honda	Honda HSV-010 GT	100	Takuya Izawa	B	All
				Naoki Yamamoto		All

GT300

Team	Make	Car	No.	Drivers	Tyre	Round
Cars Tokai Dream28	Mooncraft	Mooncraft Shiden	2	Kazuho Takahashi	Y	All
				Hiroki Katoh		All
Goodsmile Racing & Studie with Team Ukyo	BMW	BMW Z4 GT3	4	Nobuteru Taniguchi	Y	All
				Taku Bamba		All
Team Mach	Vemac	Vemac RD320R	5	Haruki Kurosawa	Y	2–8
				Tetsuji Tamanaka		2–3, 5–8
				Katsuhiko Tsutsui		4
Direction Racing	Porsche	Porsche 911 GT3 R	7	Akira Mizutani	Y	4–6
				Carlo van Dam		4–6
				You Yokomaku		5
Gainer	Ferrari	Ferrari F430 GT2	10	Masayuki Ueda	Y	6–8
				Masataka Kawaguchi		6–8
		Ferrari 458 Italia GT2	11	Tetsuya Tanaka	D	All
				Katsuyuki Hiranaka		All
Team SG Changi	Lexus	Lexus IS350	14	Ryo Orime	Y	All
				Alexandre Imperatori		1–2, 4–8
				Tsubasa Abe		3
				Naoya Yamano		NC
Team Art Taste	Porsche	Porsche 911 GT3 R	15	Tim Bergmeister	Y	5–8, NC
				Yasuhiro Shimizu		5–8, NC
R'Qs Motorsports	Vemac	Vemac RD350R	22	Hisashi Wada	Y	1–5, 7, NC
				Masaki Jyonai		1–5, 7, NC
Team Tsuchiya	Porsche	Porsche 997 GT3-RSR	25	Takeshi Tsuchiya	Y	1–8
				Akihiro Tsuzuki		1–8
Team Taisan	Porsche	Porsche 996 GT3	26	Kyosuke Mineo	Y	1–7, NC
				Hideshi Matsuda		1–3, 6, 8, NC
				Junichiro Yamashita		4–5, 7–8
				Shogo Mitsuyama		5
	Ferrari	Ferrari F430 GT2	41	Shinichi Yamaji		1–2, 4–6, 8, NC
				Hiroshi Koizumi		1–2, 4–6
				Kyosuke Mineo		8
				Junichiro Yamashita		NC
LMP Motorsport	Ferrari	Ferrari F430 GT2	27	Yutaka Yamagishi	Y	All
				Hideki Yamauchi		1–6, NC
				Carlo van Dam		7–8
apr	Toyota	Toyota Corolla Axio	31	Koki Saga	Y	All
				Yuki Iwasaki		All
			74	Morio Nitta		All
				Yuji Kunimoto		All
Hankook KTR	Porsche	Porsche 911 GT3 R	33	Masami Kageyama	H	All
				Tomonobu Fujii		All
		Porsche 997 GT3 RS	34	Hiroshi Takamori		1–2, 5–6
				Michael Kim		1–2, 5–6
				Naoya Gamou		2, 5
Autobacs Racing Team Aguri	ASL	ASL Garaiya	43	Shinichi Takagi	B	All
				Kosuke Matsuura		All
R&D Sport	Subaru	Subaru Legacy B4	62	Kota Sasaki	Y	All
				Tetsuya Yamano		All
A speed	Aston Martin	Aston Martin V8 Vantage GT2	66	Hiroki Yoshimoto	Y	All
				Kazuki Hoshino		All
ThunderAsia Racing	Mosler	Mosler MT900M	69	Hiroki Yoshida	Y	1–8
				Melvin Choo		1–3, 5–8
				Naoki Yokomizo		4–5
JLOC	Lamborghini	Lamborghini Gallardo RG-3	86	Takayuki Aoki	Y	All
				Yuya Sakamoto		All
			87	Manabu Orido		All
				Atsushi Yogo		All
			88	Hiroyuki Iiri		All
				Yuhi Sekiguchi		All
Tomei Sports	Callaway	Callaway Corvette Z06.R GT3	360	Atsushi Tanaka	Y	1–2, 4, 7
				Kazuyoshi Okamura		1–2, 4
				Masahiro Matsunaga		7

Team Movements

GT500

• Honda
  • The original driver lineup from the ARTA, Ralph Firman and Yuji Ide, both left the team this season. They were replaced by Hideki Mutoh and Takashi Kobayashi respectively.
• Lexus
  • Racing Project Bandoh, GT300 Class Champion in 2009 season, will be participating in GT500 class this year.
  • Björn Wirdheim who drove in the ENEOS last season, moved to Nissan's Kondō Racing.
  • Lexus will using SC430 until season ends, as there are remaining SC430s in the factory. The SC430 will be replaced by the LFA in the next season.
• Nissan
  • MOLA, GT300 Class Champion in the 2008 season, will be participating in GT500 class this year. With Masataka Yanagida and Ronnie Quintarelli as their drivers, while João Paulo de Oliveira who was with Kondō Racing filled the void in the Impul team.

GT300

• RE Amemiya, a regular GT300 entrant in the class since the 1995 JGTC season, has withdrawn from the series completely. While 2008 and 2009 GT300 Champion Team MOLA and Racing Project Bandoh both moved up to the GT500 class respectively. 2010 GT300 Champion Hasemi Motorsport also withdrawn the series in early April. Making both Nissan and Mazda car absent in the GT300 lineup this year, for the first time since 1995.
• Jim Gainer Team, which was using the Ferrari F430 in the 2010 season, switched 1 of their 2 cars to a Ferrari F458 GTC. Ferrari stated they are not likely to supply F458's to any of the Super GT teams. Team Mach also showed interest in using an F458 this season but due to the reason above, the plan was not implemented and they had to drive with a Vemac.
• Studie, which used a BMW Z4 (E86) in the 2008 and 2009 seasons, returned to the series with a BMW Z4 GT3, previously the #76 car used by Schubert Motorsport (Team Need for Speed) in the 2010 FIA GT3 European Championship season. They have hired former F1 driver Ukyo Katayama as their sporting director and former RE Amemiya driver Nobuteru Taniguchi as their driver.
• Team COX left the series after just one season in the series. Goodsmile Racing would later merge with Studie, bringing Taku Bamba to the team as well.
• Chevrolet cars, which previously appeared in Super GT in the 2007 season also returned to the series, with Tomei Sports replacing their 996 type Porsche 911 GT3 with a Corvette Z06-R.
• Porsche supplied two new 2010 specification Porsche 911 GT3Rs to Direction Racing and Team Art Taste, the latter team, which was a regular entrant of Super Taikyu series, also marked their debut season in Super GT. The 2010 specification Porsche 911 GT3R which was used by Team COX last season was given to the Hankook KTR team.
• Team SG Changi, which uses a Lexus IS350 with former RE Amemiya driver Ryo Orime and Alexandre Imperatori is participating in the series for the first time.
• Kazuki Hoshino, the driver's Champion of GT300 last year, moved from Hasemi Motorsport to A Speed (using an Aston Martin V8 Vantage GT2), replacing Hideshi Matsuda. Hasemi Motorsport was later to announce their withdrawal from the series.

Calendar

Round	Circuit	Date	Pole Position	GT500 Winner	GT300 Winner
2	Fuji Speedway^1	1 May	No. 39 Lexus Team SARD	No. 23 Nismo	No. 33 Hankook KTR
			Takuto Iguchi Hiroaki Ishiura	Satoshi Motoyama Benoît Tréluyer	Tomonobu Fujii Masami Kageyama
1^2	Okayama International Circuit	22 May	No. 17 Keihin Real Racing	No. 12 Team Impul	No. 66 A speed
			Toshihiro Kaneishi Koudai Tsukakoshi	Tsugio Matsuda João Paulo de Oliveira	Kazuki Hoshino Hiroki Yoshimoto
3	Sepang International Circuit	19 June	No. 1 Weider Honda Racing	No. 1 Weider Honda Racing	No. 4 GSR&Studie with TeamUKYO
			Loïc Duval Takashi Kogure	Loïc Duval Takashi Kogure	Taku Bamba Nobuteru Taniguchi
4	Sportsland SUGO	31 July	No. 46 MOLA	No. 46 MOLA	No. 14 Team SG CHANGI
			Ronnie Quintarelli Masataka Yanagida	Ronnie Quintarelli Masataka Yanagida	Alexandre Imperatori Ryo Orime
5^3	Suzuka Circuit Report	21 August	No. 46 MOLA	No. 1 Weider Honda Racing	No. 62 R&D Sport
			Ronnie Quintarelli Masataka Yanagida	Loïc Duval Takashi Kogure	Tetsuya Yamano Kota Sasaki
6	Fuji Speedway	11 September	No. 39 Lexus Team SARD	No. 38 Lexus Team ZENT Cerumo	No. 4 GSR&Studie with TeamUKYO
			Hiroaki Ishiura Takuto Iguchi	Yuji Tachikawa Kohei Hirate	Taku Bamba Nobuteru Taniguchi
7	Autopolis	2 October	No. 39 Lexus Team SARD	No. 23 Nismo	No. 62 R&D Sport
			Hiroaki Ishiura Takuto Iguchi	Satoshi Motoyama Benoît Tréluyer	Tetsuya Yamano Kota Sasaki
8	Twin Ring Motegi	16 October	No. 46 MOLA	No. 23 Nismo	No. 4 GSR&Studie with TeamUKYO
			Ronnie Quintarelli Masataka Yanagida	Satoshi Motoyama Benoît Tréluyer	Taku Bamba Nobuteru Taniguchi
NC	Fuji Speedway	12 November	No. 46 MOLA	No. 46 MOLA	No. 4 GSR&Studie with TeamUKYO
			Ronnie Quintarelli	Ronnie Quintarelli	Nobuteru Taniguchi
		13 November	No. 46 MOLA	No. 100 Team Kunimitsu	No. 4 GSR&Studie with TeamUKYO
			Masataka Yanagida	Takuya Izawa	Taku Bamba

Notes:

• ^1 – Race stopped early due to bad weather, full points awarded.
• ^2 – The Okayama round was still considered Round 1.
• ^3 – Race stopped early due to energy curfew, full points awarded.

Standings

GT500 Drivers

Scoring system

Position	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th	10th
Points	20	15	11	8	6	5	4	3	2	1

Rank Driver OKA FUJ SEP SUG SUZ FUJ AUT MOT PTS 1 Masataka Yanagida Ronnie Quintarelli 6 10 2 1 2 7 2 2 90 2 Satoshi Motoyama Benoît Tréluyer 5 1 14 12 4 6 1 1 79 3 Takashi Kogure Loïc Duval 7 13 1 Ret 1 4 11 6 57 4 Toshihiro Kaneishi Koudai Tsukakoshi 3 8 3 6 12 3 6 7 50 5 Tsugio Matsuda João Paulo de Oliveira 1 14 15 13 3 2 10 9 49 6 Yuji Tachikawa Kohei Hirate 8 5 5 11 13 1 3 10 47 7 Hiroaki Ishiura Takuto Iguchi 13 6 13 2 5 8 15 3 40 8 André Lotterer Kazuki Nakajima 4 4 6 9 6 15 4 8 39 9 Takuya Izawa Naoki Yamamoto 2 12 7 7 Ret 5 14 4 37 10 Hironobu Yasuda Björn Wirdheim 9 7 4 4 10 11 5 12 29 11 Daisuke Ito Kazuya Oshima 11 2 8 5 8 10 13 15 28 12 Ryo Michigami Yuhki Nakayama 10 15 12 3 13 12 8 5 21 13 Seiji Ara Tatsuya Kataoka 15 3 11 8 11 13 7 11 18 14 Juichi Wakisaka Andre Couto 14 11 10 Ret 7 9 9 14 9 15 Hideki Mutoh Takashi Kobayashi 12 9 9 10 9 9 12 13 9 Rank Driver OKA FUJ SEP SUG SUZ FUJ AUT MOT PTS

Colour Result Gold Winner Silver 2nd place Bronze 3rd 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 participate (DNP) Excluded (EX)

GT300 Drivers

Scoring system

Position	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th	10th
Points	20	15	11	8	6	5	4	3	2	1

Rank Driver OKA FUJ SEP SUG SUZ FUJ AUT MOT PTS 1 Nobuteru Taniguchi Taku Bamba 4 5 1 6 5 1 9 1 87 2 Tetsuya Tanaka Katsuyuki Hiranaka 2 2 2 7 4 22 2 3 83 3 Masami Kageyama Tomonobu Fujii 14 1 9 5 2 11 17 2 58 4 Tetsuya Yamano Kota Sasaki 8 18 8 Ret 1 6 1 6 56 5 Ryo Orime 15 16 Ret 1 8 2 3 Ret 49 6 Alexandre Imperatori 15 16 1 8 2 3 Ret 49 7 Yuji Kunimoto Morio Nitta 6 7 6 2 7 12 8 9 38 8 Kazuki Hoshino Hiroki Yoshimoto 1 Ret Ret 8 12 9 11 4 33 9 Takeshi Tsuchiya Akihiro Tsuzuki Ret 3 Ret 4 9 5 5 19 33 10 Kazuho Takahashi Hiroki Katoh 7 Ret 10 13 6 3 4 8 32 11 Manabu Orido Atsushi Yogo 3 14 7 16 3 19 16 16 26 12 Shinichi Takagi Kosuke Matsuura 20 6 5 3 20 12 13 7 26 13 Yuhi Sekiguchi Hiroyuki Iiri Ret 8 4 15 10 4 12 5 26 14 Yutaka Yamagishi 5 11 3 Ret 11 7 10 14 22 15 Hideki Yamauchi 5 11 3 Ret 11 7 21 16 Koki Saga Yuki Iwasaki 12 4 11 Ret 13 13 7 11 12 17 Takayuki Aoki Yuya Sakamoto 10 Ret 14 15 10 8 6 12 10 18 Shinichi Yamaji 9 9 12 17 21 Ret 4 19 Hiroshi Koizumi 9 9 12 17 21 4 20 Haruki Kurosawa 19 12 9 Ret 17 21 16 2 21 Katsuhiko Tsutsui 9 2 22 Hiroshi Takamori Michael Kim 17 10 Ret Ret 1 23 Yasuhiro Shimizu Tim Bergmeister 16 10 15 13 1 24 Carlo van Dam DNQ 14 Ret 16 10 14 1 25 Junichiro Yamashita 12 11 14 20 10 1 26 Hideshi Matsuda 11 12 13 15 10 1 Rank Driver OKA FUJ SEP SUG SUZ FUJ AUT MOT PTS

Colour Result Gold Winner Silver 2nd place Bronze 3rd 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 participate (DNP) Excluded (EX)

References

1. "8 rounds for 2011 SUPER GT season, Autopolis back in the calendar!". supergt.net. Super GT. 2010-08-08. Retrieved 2011-02-02.
2. "Super GT Okayama will be held in 21–22 May". as-web.jp. i-dea. 2010-03-24. Retrieved 2011-03-24.

External links

• Super GT official website (in English)