2011 Super GT season

2011 Super GT season
Previous: 2010	Next: 2012

The 2011 Autobacs Super GT Series was the 18th season of the Japan Automobile Federation Super GT Championship.

Schedule[]

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The provisional calendar was released on 8th, August, 2010. The Autopolis round which was absent last 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 will 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 has been modified to cope with the situations.

The calendar was updated at 15th, 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
NC	All Star Series	Fuji Speedway	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 has been 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
Weider Honda Racing	Honda	Honda HSV-010 GT	1	Loïc Duval	B	All
Lexus Team LeMans ENEOS	Lexus	Lexus SC430	6	Daisuke Itō	B	All
Lexus Team LeMans ENEOS	Lexus	Lexus SC430	6	Kazuya Oshima	B	All
Autobacs Racing Team Aguri	Honda	Honda HSV-010 GT	8	Hideki Mutoh	B	All
Autobacs Racing Team Aguri	Honda	Honda HSV-010 GT	8	Takashi Kobayashi	B	All
Team Impul	Nissan	Nissan GT-R	12	Tsugio Matsuda	B	All
Team Impul	Nissan	Nissan GT-R	12	João Paulo de Oliveira	B	All
Keihin Real Racing	Honda	Honda HSV-010 GT	17	Toshihiro Kaneishi	B	All
Keihin Real Racing	Honda	Honda HSV-010 GT	17	Koudai Tsukakoshi	B	All
Lexus Team WedsSport BANDOH	Lexus	Lexus SC430	19	Tatsuya Kataoka	Y	All
Lexus Team WedsSport BANDOH	Lexus	Lexus SC430	19	Seiji Ara	Y	All
Nismo	Nissan	Nissan GT-R	23	Satoshi Motoyama	B	All
Nismo	Nissan	Nissan GT-R	23	Benoît Tréluyer	B	All
Kondō Racing	Nissan	Nissan GT-R	24	Hironobu Yasuda	Y	All
Kondō Racing	Nissan	Nissan GT-R	24	Bjorn Wirdheim	Y	All
Nakajima Racing	Honda	Honda HSV-010 GT	32	Ryo Michigami	D	All
Nakajima Racing	Honda	Honda HSV-010 GT	32	Yuhki Nakayama	D	All
Lexus Team Kraft	Lexus	Lexus SC430	35	Juichi Wakisaka	B	All
Lexus Team Kraft	Lexus	Lexus SC430	35	André Couto	B	All
Lexus Team Petronas TOM'S	Lexus	Lexus SC430	36	André Lotterer	B	All
Lexus Team Petronas TOM'S	Lexus	Lexus SC430	36	Kazuki Nakajima	B	All
Lexus Team ZENT Cerumo	Lexus	Lexus SC430	38	Yuji Tachikawa	B	All
Lexus Team ZENT Cerumo	Lexus	Lexus SC430	38	Kohei Hirate	B	All
Lexus Team SARD	Lexus	Lexus SC430	39	Hiroaki Ishiura	M	All
Lexus Team SARD	Lexus	Lexus SC430	39	Takuto Iguchi	M	All
MOLA	Nissan	Nissan GT-R	46	Masataka Yanagida	M	All
MOLA	Nissan	Nissan GT-R	46	Ronnie Quintarelli	M	All
Team Kunimitsu	Honda	Honda HSV-010 GT	100	Takuya Izawa	B	All
Team Kunimitsu	Honda	Honda HSV-010 GT	100	Naoki Yamamoto	B	All

GT300[]

Team	Make	Car	No.	Drivers	Tyre	Round
Cars Tokai Dream28	Mooncraft	Mooncraft Shiden	2	Kazuho Takahashi	Y	All
Cars Tokai Dream28	Mooncraft	Mooncraft Shiden	2	Hiroki Katoh	Y	All
GSR & Studie with Team Ukyo	BMW	BMW Z4 GT3	4	Nobuteru Taniguchi	Y	All
GSR & Studie with Team Ukyo	BMW	BMW Z4 GT3	4	Taku Bamba	Y	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
		Ferrari F430 GT2	10	Masataka Kawaguchi	Y	6–8
		Ferrari 458 Italia GT2	11	Tetsuya Tanaka	D	All
		Ferrari 458 Italia GT2	11	Katsuyuki Hiranaka	D	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
Team Art Taste	Porsche	Porsche 911 GT3 R	15	Yasuhiro Shimizu	Y	5–8, NC
R'Qs Motorsports	Vemac	Vemac RD350R	22	Hisashi Wada	Y	1–5, 7, NC
R'Qs Motorsports	Vemac	Vemac RD350R	22	Masaki Jyonai	Y	1–5, 7, NC
Team Tsuchiya	Porsche	Porsche 997 GT3-RSR	25	Takeshi Tsuchiya	Y	1–8
Team Tsuchiya	Porsche	Porsche 997 GT3-RSR	25	Akihiro Tsuzuki	Y	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
			31	Yuki Iwasaki		All
			74	Morio Nitta		All
			74	Yuji Kunimoto		All
Hankook KTR	Porsche	Porsche 911 GT3 R	33	Masami Kageyama	H	All
		Porsche 911 GT3 R	33	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
Autobacs Racing Team Aguri	ASL	ASL Garaiya	43	Kosuke Matsuura	B	All
R&D Sport	Subaru	Subaru Legacy B4	62	Kota Sasaki	Y	All
R&D Sport	Subaru	Subaru Legacy B4	62	Tetsuya Yamano	Y	All
A speed	Aston Martin	Aston Martin V8 Vantage GT2	66	Hiroki Yoshimoto	Y	All
A speed	Aston Martin	Aston Martin V8 Vantage GT2	66	Kazuki Hoshino	Y	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
			86	Yuya Sakamoto		All
			87	Manabu Orido		All
			87	Atsushi Yogo		All
			88	Hiroyuki Iiri		All
			88	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.
- Bjorn 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, partnered with Taku Bamba.
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 (Goodsmile Racing, GSR) 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 Speedway¹	1 May	No. 39 Lexus Team SARD	No. 23 Nismo	No. 33 Hankook KTR
2	Fuji Speedway¹	1 May	Takuto Iguchi Hiroaki Ishiura	Satoshi Motoyama Benoît Tréluyer	Tomonobu Fujii Masami Kageyama
1²	Okayama International Circuit	22 May	No. 17 Keihin Real Racing	No. 12 Team Impul	No. 66 A speed
1²	Okayama International Circuit	22 May	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
3	Sepang International Circuit	19 June	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
4	Sportsland SUGO	31 July	Ronnie Quintarelli Masataka Yanagida	Ronnie Quintarelli Masataka Yanagida	Alexandre Imperatori Ryo Orime
5³	Suzuka Circuit Report	21 August	No. 46 MOLA	No. 1 Weider Honda Racing	No. 62 R&D Sport
5³	Suzuka Circuit Report	21 August	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
6	Fuji Speedway	11 September	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
7	Autopolis	2 October	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
8	Twin Ring Motegi	16 October	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
		12 November	Ronnie Quintarelli	Ronnie Quintarelli	Nobuteru Taniguchi
		13 November	No. 46 MOLA	No. 100 Team Kunimitsu	No. 4 GSR&Studie with TeamUKYO
		13 November	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	Second place
Bronze	Third place
Green	Points finish
Blue	Non-points finish
Blue	Non-classified finish (NC)
Purple	Retired (Ret)
Red	Did not qualify (DNQ)
Red	Did not pre-qualify (DNPQ)
Black	Disqualified (DSQ)
White	Did not start (DNS)
	Withdrew (WD)
	Race cancelled (C)
Blank	Did not practice (DNP)
	Did not arrive (DNA)
	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	Second place
Bronze	Third place
Green	Points finish
Blue	Non-points finish
Blue	Non-classified finish (NC)
Purple	Retired (Ret)
Red	Did not qualify (DNQ)
Red	Did not pre-qualify (DNPQ)
Black	Disqualified (DSQ)
White	Did not start (DNS)
	Withdrew (WD)
	Race cancelled (C)
Blank	Did not practice (DNP)
	Did not arrive (DNA)
	Excluded (EX)

References[]

↑ "8 rounds for 2011 SUPER GT season, Autopolis back in the calendar!". supergt.net. Super GT. 2010-08-08. http://ww2.supergt.net/gtcgi/prg/NList02.dll/Code?No=NS015924&List=15. Retrieved 2011-02-02.
↑ ^2.0 ^2.1 "Super GT Okayama will be held in 21–22 May". as-web.jp. i-dea. 2010-03-24. http://as-web.jp/news/info.php?c_id=2&no=32562. Retrieved 2011-03-24.

External links[]

Super GT official website Template:En icon

Template:Super GT seasons

[1] "8 rounds for 2011 SUPER GT season, Autopolis back in the calendar!". supergt.net. Super GT. 2010-08-08. http://ww2.supergt.net/gtcgi/prg/NList02.dll/Code?No=NS015924&List=15. Retrieved 2011-02-02.

[Okayama-2] 2.0 ^2.1 "Super GT Okayama will be held in 21–22 May". as-web.jp. i-dea. 2010-03-24. http://as-web.jp/news/info.php?c_id=2&no=32562. Retrieved 2011-03-24.

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[2]