GTA: Fuji Sprint Necessary for Future WEC, IGTC Tie-Ups

GTA chairman Masaaki Bandoh says he hopes to use next month’s SUPER GT sprint race at Fuji Speedway as a test bed to enable future tie-ups with the FIA World Endurance Championship and Intercontinental GT Challenge.

Fuji confirmed the format for the sprint earlier this month, with the event to feature three short one-driver races without pit stops — one involving both GT500 and GT300 cars on Saturday and then two more on Sunday featuring each class running separately.

Speaking with Sportscar365 about the unusual plan, Bandoh acknowledged concerns outline by drivers earlier in the year that shorter races with no element of strategy, and in the case of the Sunday races, no traffic management, could be boring.

But he said it was a necessary first step towards his ambition of GT500 cars having their own sprint race on the support bill of the WEC’s Fuji round.

This would be complemented by the GT300 cars having their own points-paying race as part of the Suzuka 1000km from next season onwards, an ambition Bandoh mentioned upon last year’s agreement that SUPER GT teams would be allowed to use their cars in this year’s running of the revived IGTC fixture.

“I spoke to [ACO President Pierre] Fillon about whether he would support a GT500-only race at Fuji,” said Bandoh. “I don’t know his exact position, but I made it clear to him that we want to work together.

“And then we could think about having standalone points-paying races for both GT500 and GT300. That’s what we are exploring right now.

“So in order to make that a reality, we are having one day of the August Fuji race with the two classes racing separately. We want to check if this is a possibility.

“After considering that first, we can then consider the GT500s running at the WEC event, or the GT300s running with the Suzuka 1000km as a step above that.

“To be able to say we’ve laid the groundwork, and to see whether it is boring in the end, and how the fans react, there is merit in trying it this time.

“For the GT500 race, we’ll need to see how it goes this year, whether it is feasible, and then we will have to discuss all the details with Fillon after that.”

While a GT500 sprint race at Fuji appears to be largely a question of logistics and costs, a major obstacle to integrating the full GT300 field into the Suzuka 1000km would be how to circumvent SUPER GT’s tire war for a single round.

As with all IGTC rounds with the exception of the Nürburgring 24, the use of spec Pirelli tires is mandatory at Suzuka.

“We have spoken to the SRO and Stephane [Ratel], but the issue there is the use of commercial Pirelli tires and what our stance would be there,” said Bandoh.

“That is something we’ll discuss in the future. I think to run as part of the 1000km, we would have to use one-make tires, so we need to come to some sort of arrangement.”