As its glittering track career winds down to an end the Prodrive-developed Ferrari 550 Maranello has claimed another important honour to add to its already impressive roll-call, this time overall victory in the first round of the inaugural Japanese Le Mans Challenge at Sugo last weekend. The Dunlop-sponsored red machine, driven by Tatsuya Kataoka, Naoki Hattori and Eiichi Tajima and running in the LMGT1 class, swept to overall victory at Sugo in a 12-car race that included several faster and more powerful LMP1 and LMP2 entries. This Ferrari, which has unsuccessfully competed in the Japanese GT Series over the last couple of years, in the process won the first ever Japanese Le Mans Challenge race, 1 lap ahead of an LMP2 GC-21R and 6 laps in front of the third placed LMGT2 Porsche 911 GT3-RSR.

JAPANESE LE MANS CHALLENGE

Sports Car Endurance Race Operation (SERO) representative Eiji Uzushiri announced the outline of new programme of race events to be held in 2006 at the end of last year. The aim was to create new racing fans with new tastes and age groups in addition to existing race fans; to amplify the possibilities of racing circuits. [To inform the public that racing can become a weekend trend to be enjoyed at the circuits]; and to nurture motor sports culture, promoting collaborative events with other genre of entertainment, businesses or brands.

Based on this concept SERO combined the three major events: "All Japan Sports Car Endurance Championship" as state of the art motor sports, "Classic Endurance Racing Japan" as a historical picture scroll-type classic car race and "Sport Car Circuit Challenge" as a super sports car event into one race and unfold it in a way that all contents will be the leading player. The "All Japan Sports Car Endurance Championship" thus became a new all Japan championship title event that currently did not exist in the touring car department. Its regulations were immediately based on LMS (Le Mans Endurance Series). Using this All Japan Championship as the pivotal base, SERO will now strive to create an environment where racers and racing teams will be able to take a big leap into global racing events such as the Le Mans 24 Hour Race.

For 2006, there is a calendar of three races. The opening race which was held last weekend (May 13/14) at the Sportsland Sugo track, while the second race will be held on July 1/2 at Twin Ring Motegi, and finally the last race is scheduled for October 28/29 at the Okayama International Circuit.

QUALIFYING

Twelve sportscars spread across four classes (LMP1, LMP2, LMGT1 and LMGT2) turned up to take part in qualifying for the opening round of the JLMC at Sugo, with Italian interest closely centred around the appearance of the Dunlop Ferrari 550 Maranello and the JLOC Lamborghini Murciélago R-GT. The qualifying session took place under wet conditions after a hot and beautiful summer-like day of free practice sessions.

Drivers were given the opportunity of aiming for their best time and clear the required standard. Due to the weather's instability, most cars didn't wait long to leave the pits soon after the start signal of the morning "Drivers' qualifying" session. In spite of the weather conditions, the LMP1 class Zytek 05S soon marked a 1:20.723: the fastest lap of the session.
 

The Qualifying runner up, also the top of its own LMP-2 class, was Lav-Tec Myz GC-21driven by Yuya Sakamoto, Yoshihisa Namekata and Tomonobu Fujii, a massive 11 seconds behind the Zytek. In third position came the LMGT1 class Dunlop Ferrari 550 Maranello driven by Tatsuya Kataoka, Naoki Hattori and Eiichi Tajima. Overcoming its previous day's engine troubles and claiming top of the LMGT-2 class was the Shinwa Service Porsche 911 GT3-RSR of Koji Aoyama, Shinichi Takagi and Morio Nitta, in 7th position.

Under a heavy sky the drivers then headed for the afternoon "Official Qualifying" time attack. Here, in less then 5 laps, the Zytek with Hiroki Kato on the wheel, achieved the top time of 1:24.141 and proudly marked the very first pole position for brand-new JLMC. The selected drivers for the race were, Hideki Noda and Kato. The monitors show a fierce fight for second position with Tatsuya Kataoka at the wheel of the Ferrari 550 Maranello holding sway. Determined to exceed the red car's time, the GC-21 driven by Sakamoto, using the full 20 minutes of qualifying opportunity, snatched the front row slot away with a lap of 1:31.044, putting the car on top of the LMP2 class. LMGT1 runner up was the Lamborghini Murciélago R-GT driven by Koji Yamanishi, Yasutaka Hino and Wada-Q, 5th overall while LMGT-2 pole was kept by the Sinwa Sevice Porsche.

RACE

Although the track was still wet during the warm up morning session, all the drivers bet on slick tyres for the race, which was fortunately welcomed by clear blue skies. Apart from the Aim Sports GC-21 which started from the pits after suffering electrical problems, all the other cars left the pits to start the opening lap from the grid.

At the front, and with a four second gap by the end of lap one was the Zytek 05S, but throughout the field and regardless of class ranking, the race saw some incredible battles: the Ferrari 550 Maranello versus the Lav-Tec GC-21 standing out. However it took only 12 laps and 15 minutes for the top Zytek to lap all the other cars, a fantastic performance much to the surprise and fascination of all spectators. Following the Ferrari 550 Maranello and in third position was the Lamborghini Murciélago R-GT cruising on at a steady pace, until on the last corner of the 41st lap it suddenly stopped. Apparently the rear left hub had been damaged and this was the end of its weekend's work.

Ten laps later, leading Zytek finally headed for its very first pit stop, 50 laps from the start. Kato took the wheel; they he rejoined now 4 laps ahead of the second position. However on the 65th lap, the leading prototype suddenly slowed down and headed towards the pit road, but unfortunately it couldn't even make it to its pit as the engine went dead. The engineers replaced the ECU, and searched everywhere for the cause of the engine trouble, but without success. The race was over also for the Dunlop Zytek 05S. Ten minutes later Ferrari 550 Maranello took the race lead. At this stage the runner up was Aim Sports GC-21, and although it had started from the pits, it had succeeded in maintaining a steady pace throughout the race, successfully reaching second place. After 2 hours the Ferrari had completed 84 laps. The car was driven first by Kataoka then Hattori, Tajima and then back to Kataoka for the final stint. All three drivers kept up an incredible pace throughout the race of between high 1:24 seconds and low 25 second laps.

After 5 hours of racing the top three was made up of the Dunlop Ferrari 550 Maranello ahead of the Aim Sports GC-21 and the Shinwa Service Porsche 911GT3-RSR holding third place. However at the final turn the Lav-Tec GC-21 crashed and came to a rest in the middle of the track, forcing the red flag to be waved. With 75 percent of the race having been completed the result was declared final and the Prodrive-built Ferrari 550 Maranello had added another important victory to its impressive roll call.