2006 Japan Le Mans Challenge season

2006 Japan Le Mans Challenge season
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The 2006 Japan Le Mans Challenge season was the first ever season for the Japan Le Mans Challenge, a series created by SERO and run under sanctioning from the ACO to follow 24 Hours of Le Mans rules. It began May 14, 2006 and ended October 29, 2006 after 3 races.

Pre-season

In the buildup to the first season of JLMC, it was apparent from the start that unlike the Le Mans Series in Europe, JLMC would not start off with great success. A lack of commitment from major Japanese teams, especially those involved in Super GT, meant that the entry list for the season was small. An official pre-season test at Sportsland Sugo saw only 8 cars showing up. Even with this, more teams promised to eventually make it to the JLMC grid, including Team Goh, who had earned fame when they won the 2005 24 Hours of Le Mans with the conquering Audi R8.

However, of the teams that did show up, few had quality machinery. The entire LMP2 class was small sportscars that did not actually fit LMP2 regulations. LMP1 was able to boast some machinery that fit LMP rules with a Zytek 05S while there was promise of a new Courage LC70 for Mugen Motorsports on the way as the season went on.

GT classes was made up of a large amount of machinery from Super GT, with an ex-Prodrive Ferrari 550-GTS and JLOC's Super GT Lamborghini Murcielago RG-1 joined by a privateer Mosler MT900R in GT1. GT2 was also only able to claim a few competitive entries, with some two Porsche 911 GT3s being mixed with a privateer cars that did not fully reach ACO GT2 specs.

These competitors allowed for the entry list of a mere 12 competitors for the first round at Sportsland Sugo.

Schedule

Rnd Race Circuit Date
1 Sportsland Sugo 1000 km Sportsland SUGO May 14
2 Motegi 1000 km Twin Ring Motegi July 2
3 Okayama 1000 km Okayama International Circuit October 29

Season results

Overall winner in bold.

Rnd Circuit LMP1 Winning Team LMP2 Winning Team GT1 Winning Team GT2 Winning Team
LMP1 Winning Drivers LMP2 Winning Drivers GT1 Winning Drivers GT2 Winning Drivers
1 Sugo Japan #66 Jidosha Koubou Myst Japan #18 Aim Sports Japan #20 Hitotsuyama Racing Japan #27 Team Kawamura
Japan Takahiko Shimazawa
Japan Masaya Kono
Japan Kenji Takeya		 Japan Shinsuke Yamakazi
Japan Yuji Aso
Japan Masaru Tomizawa		 Japan Tatsuya Kataoka
Japan Naoki Hattori
Japan Eiichi Tajima		 Japan Koji Aoyama
Japan Shinichi Takagi
Japan Morio Nitta
2 Motegi Japan #66 Jidosha Koubou Myst Japan #4 MYZ Japan #20 Hitotsuyama Racing Japan #27 Team Kawamura
Japan Takahiki Shimazawa
Japan Hiroshi Ohta
Japan Kenji Takeya		 Japan Yuya Sakamoto
Japan Yoshihisa Namekata
Japan Tomonobu Fujii		 Japan Tatsuya Kataoka
Japan Naoki Hattori
Japan Eiichi Tajima		 Japan Koji Aoyama
Japan Shinichi Takagi
Japan Morio Nitta
3 Okayama Japan #16 Team Mugen Japan #4 MYZ Japan #88 JLOC Japan #930 Sunburst Rush
Japan Seiji Ara
Japan Haruki Kurosawa		 Japan Yuya Sakamoto
Japan Yoshihisa Namekata
Japan Tomonobu Fujii		 Japan Koji Yamanishi
Japan Yasatuka Hinoi
Japan Wada-Q		 Japan Yutaka Matsushima
Japan Takeru Inui
Japan Masashi Kakuichi

Drivers' Championship

LMP1 standings

Pos Driver Team Round 1 Round 2 Round 3 Total
1 Japan Takahiko Shimazawa Jidousya Koubou Myst 5 5 2.5 12.5
2 Japan Kenji Takeya Jidousya Koubou Myst 5 5 10
3 Japan Hiroshi Ohta Jidousya Koubou Myst 5 2.5 7.5

LMP2 standings

Pos Driver Team Round 1 Round 2 Round 3 Total
1 Japan Yuya Sakamoto
Japan Yoshihisa Namekata
Japan Tomonobu Fuji		 MYZ 5 10 15
2 Japan Tomokuni Waki
Japan Masayoshi Furuya
Japan Hisashi Tsukahara		 Jidousya Koubou Myst 8 8
3 Japan Shinsuke Yamazaki
Japan Yuji Aso
Japan Masaru Tomizawa		 Aim Sports 5 5

GT1 standings

Pos Driver Team Round 1 Round 2 Round 3 Total
1 Japan Tatsuya Kataoka
Japan Naoki Hattori
Japan Eiichi Tajima		 Hitotsuyama Racing 5 5 3 13
2 Japan Osamu Nakajima
Japan Masaki Tanaka
Japan Hiroya Iijima		 Team Leyjun 4 4 4 12
3 Japan Koji Yamanishi
Japan Yasutaka Hinoi
Japan Hisashi Wada		 JLOC 5 5

GT2 standings

Pos Driver Team Round 1 Round 2 Round 3 Total
1 Japan Koji Aoyama
Japan Shinichi Takagi
Japan Morio Nitta		 Team Kawamura 5 5 8 18
2 Japan Yutaka Matsushima
Japan Masashi Kakiuchi
Japan Takeshi Inui		 Sunburst Rush 10 10
3 Japan Kazuyoshi Takamizawa
Japan Akihiko Tsutsumi
Japan Tomohiko Sunako		 Team Takamizawa 4 4 8

Teams' Championship

Points are awarded to finishers based on how many cars were entered in each class. For classes with a lower car count, the top five were awarded points in the order of 5-4-3-2-1. Classes with more entries were awarded points for the top eight in the order of 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1.

Only the top finishing car in a team scores points towards the championship.

LMP1 standings

Pos Team Chassis Engine Round 1 Round 2 Round 3 Total
1 Japan Jidosha Koubou Myst RS.Oscar SK-52
RS.Oscar SK-93		 Toyota 3.0L V8
5
5
3		 13
2 Japan Team Mugen Courage LC70 Mugen MF408S 4.0L V8 5 5
3 Japan Hitotsuyama Racing Zytek 05S Zytek ZB408 4.0L V8 4 4

LMP2 standings

Pos Team Chassis Engine Round 1 Round 2 Round 3 Total
1 Japan MYZ Dallara GC-21 Toyota 2.0L I4 5 10 15
2 Japan Jidosha Koubou Myst RS.KK-LM
RS.Oscar SK-5.2		 Toyota 3.0L V8
4
8		 12
3 Japan AIM Sports Dallara GC-21 Toyota 2.0L I4 5 5

GT1 standings

Pos Team Chassis Engine Round 1 Round 2 Round 3 Total
1 Japan Hitotsuyama Racing Ferrari 550-GTS Maranello Ferrari 5.9L V12 5 5 3 13
2 Japan Team LeyJun Mosler MT900R Chevrolet 6.0L V8 4 4 4 12
3 Japan JLOC Lamborghini Murcielago RG-1 Lamborghini 6.0L V12 5 5

GT2 standings

Pos Team Chassis Engine Round 1 Round 2 Round 3 Total
1 Japan Team Kawamura Porsche 911 GT3-RSR Porsche 3.6L Flat-6 5 5 8 18
2 Japan Proto Works Mazda RX-7
Porsche 911 GT3-RS		 Mazda 2.0L 3-Rotor
Porsche 3.6L Flat-6		 3

 3
6		 12
3 Japan Sunburst Rush Porsche 964 Carrera RS Porsche 3.6L Flat-6 10 10
4 Japan Team Takamizawa Porsche 911 GT3-R Porsche 3.6L Flat-6 4 4 8

External links