Moriya Street Race “Far Away” Despite “Healthy” Talks

The Tokyo suburb of Moriya holding a Fanatec GT World Challenge Asia powered by AWS race has been acknowledged as a future possibility by SRO Motorsports Asia General Manager Benjamin Franassovici, who added such a prospect is still “far away”.

Moriya is a city of just under 70,000 inhabitants situated in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan, and serves as a bedroom community on the edge of the wider Tokyo conurbation.

An organization known as Moriya GT Grand Prix has held a series of car-themed events on public roads in the city, the most recent of which took place last September (pictured top), and has set itself the target of eventually holding a full-blown street race.

To that end, preliminary talks have been held with SRO on multiple occasions, with Franassovici even making a trip to the city to meet with organizers and local government representatives whose blessing would be needed for a race to happen.

Franassovici confirmed the talks in a recent interview with Sportscar365 but warned there are still many hurdles to overcome for a race to be a reality.

“I went there [to Moriya] in February, just for one day,” confirmed Franassovici. “I travelled there by train from Tokyo just to get a proper feel of how long it took to get there.

“We’ve been having friendly and healthy conservations to see what is possible. It would be great to have a street race in Tokyo. It’s an interesting project, but it’s very early days.

“We are always open-minded. Bringing a Fanatec GT Asia race to the streets of Tokyo is very ambitious. I think it needs to start off as a showcase and prove to everyone that something can be done, and then maybe it can go to the next level.

“I would do a demonstration first, see how much interest it generates and take it from there. But convincing people in Japan to change things is challenging. The organizers are ambitious, but I think the locals are not quite ready.

“On top of that, a street circuit has to meet all the minimum safety standards, especially to reassure the Am drivers. It’s early days, but maybe one day.”

Franassovici added that the newly-standalone Japan Cup would make more sense than the main Fanatec GT Asia series should a race in Moriya ever come to fruition.

“If we were ever to race there, I think it would be natural for it to be a Japan Cup race,” he said. “But that’s still far away.”

The 2023 Moriya GT Grand Prix featured guests such as former Nissan SUPER GT star Jann Mardenborough and Super Taikyu racer Jake Parsons.

Another event similar to last year’s is in the works for next month, with a recent post from the organizer’s Facebook page suggesting an objective of holding a first race on the streets of Moriya as soon as 2026.

Franassovici’s trip to Moriya came shortly before Formula E held a first-ever street race in Tokyo, albeit that course was largely made of roads surrounding the Big Sight exhibition centre in the district of Ariake, outside of any residential areas.