The 2011 Autobacs Super GT Series was the nineteenth season of the Japan Automobile Federation Super GT Championship including the

All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship is a grand touring car racing series that began in 1993. Originally titled as the , generally referred to as either the JGTC the series was renamed to Super GT in 2005. It was the top level of sports car r ...

(JGTC) era and the seventh season as the

Super GT Super GT (stylized as SUPER GT) is a grand touring car racing series that began in 1993. Launched as the , generally referred to as either the JGTC or the All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship, the series was renamed to Super GT in 2005. It is ...

series. It also marked the twenty-ninth season of a JAF-sanctioned sports car racing championship dating back to the

All Japan Sports Prototype Championship The , abbreviated as JSPC, formed by the Japan Automobile Federation, was a domestic championship which took place in Japan for Group C and IMSA GTP prototype cars and also featured cars that were eligible for touring car racing in its earlier yea ...

. It is a series for Grand Touring race cars divided into two categories: GT500 and GT300. The season began on May 1 and ended on November 13, 2011 after 8 races and 1 non-championship race. The season was due to start on April 2, but the

2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami The occurred at 14:46 JST (05:46 UTC) on 11 March. The magnitude 9.0–9.1 (M) undersea megathrust earthquake had an epicenter in the Pacific Ocean, east of the Oshika Peninsula of the Tōhoku region, and lasted approximately six minutes ...

caused its postponement. In the GT500 class, MOLA won the championship in their first ever season in the GT500 class. The MOLA drivers also scored some notable achievements with this title victory:

Masataka Yanagida Masataka Yanagida (born 4 June 1979, in Tokyo) is a Japanese racing driver. Career The son of successful racing driver Haruhito Yanagida, a runner-up in the Japanese Touring Car Championship, Masataka began his career in karting in 1993. In 199 ...

, who had won the GT300 title in

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

and

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

, becomes the first (and so far only) driver to win both the GT500 and the GT300 class, while

Ronnie Quintarelli Ronnie Quintarelli (born 9 August 1979) is an Italian racecar driver, currently competing in Super GT. A four-time champion, he holds the all-time record for the most drivers' championship titles won in the GT500 class of Super GT. Biography Qui ...

would win his first out of four GT500 titles in this season. In the GT300 class,

Goodsmile Racing is a Japanese manufacturer of hobby products such as the Nendoroid and figma product lines, as well as scale figures. In addition to production and manufacturing, its business includes design, marketing and distribution. Its products are usuall ...

Studie Studie is a Japanese tuning company of BMW and a Super GT team which participates in GT300 class. Since 2018 the team also participates in the GT World Challenge Asia. History Studie was established in 1995 in Yokohama as a BMW parts deale ...

shocked everyone by winning the championship with the

Hatsune Miku , also called Miku Hatsune, and officially code-named CV01, is a Vocaloid software voicebank developed by Crypton Future Media and its official moe anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic mascot character, a 16-year-old girl with long, turquoise bu ...

itasha In Japan, an is a car decorated with images of characters from anime, manga, or video games (especially ''bishōjo'' games or ''eroge''). The decorations usually involve paint schemes and stickers. The cars are seen prominently in places su ...

-liveried

BMW Z4 GT3 The BMW Z4 (E89) is the second generation of the BMW Z4 range of two-door roadster (automobile), roadsters, and was produced from 2009 to 2016. The E89 replaced the BMW Z4 (E85), E85/E86 Z4 and is the fourth model in the BMW Z Series. The E89 ...

, giving series veteran

Nobuteru Taniguchi is a Japanese racing driver and drifting driver who currently competes in Super GT and D1 Grand Prix. Taniguchi is commonly nicknamed "NOB" (first three letters from his name, meaning "No One Better") or "The Pimp" as a reference to his S15 Silv ...

and Taku Bamba their first title in this series. It also marked the first championship title for

FIA GT3 Group GT3, known technically as Cup Grand Touring Cars and commonly referred to as simply GT3, is a set of regulations maintained by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) for grand tourer racing cars designed for use in various au ...

-specification cars in this series.

Schedule

The provisional calendar was released on 8 August 2010. The

Autopolis is a international racing circuit located near Kamitsue village in Ōita Prefecture, Japan on the Northeast of Kumamoto. Nippon Autopolis">F1 News - Grandprix.com > GP Encyclopedia > Circuits > Nippon Autopolis/ref> Tsurumaki ordered 30 Buic ...

round which was absent the previous 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 The is an auto race held in Japan by the Japan Automobile Federation. History The original JAF Grand Prix was set up in year 1969 as to promoting Formula Car events in Japan, which was the highest ranked race other than the Japanese Grand Prix. ...

was to be raced as a conclusion to the season. However, due to the

on March 11, a large part of the season was modified to cope with the situation. The calendar was updated on 15 April 2011.

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 was postponed to 22 May despite damage to the

Okayama International Circuit Okayama International Circuit (岡山国際サーキット), formerly known as TI Circuit Aida (TIサーキット英田) before 2005, is a private motorsport race track in Mimasaka, Okayama Prefecture, Japan. TI was the abbreviation of "Tanak ...

being minimal. 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

GT300

Team Movements

GT500

*Honda **The original driver lineup from the ARTA,

Ralph Firman Ralph David Firman Jr. (born 20 May 1975) is a British-born former racing driver who raced under Irish citizenship (his mother Angela is from Ireland) and an Irish-issued racing licence. Earlier in his career he raced under a British licence. ...

and

Yuji Ide (born 21 January 1975) is a Japanese racing driver. He is the 2005 Formula Nippon runner-up and the 2010 Suzuka 1000km winner. He competed in Formula One with the Super Aguri team in 2006, but was demoted to third driver after four races and ...

, both left the team this season. They were replaced by

Hideki Mutoh is a Japanese race car driver from Tokyo currently racing in Super GT. Career History He began karting at age 12 in 1996 and quickly moved through the ranks, becoming a part of Honda's Formula Dream Project. He moved to Europe in 1998 to ...

and Takashi Kobayashi respectively. *Lexus **

Racing Project Bandoh Racing Project Bandoh Ltd. is a Japanese racing team competing in the Super GT series. Racing History Created in 1990 by Masaaki Bando, Racing Project Bandoh raced in the All Japan Touring Car Championship from 1987 (as an earlier organizati ...

, GT300 Class Champion in 2009 season, will be participating in GT500 class this year. **

Björn Wirdheim Björn Karl Michael Wirdheim (born 4 April 1980) is a Swedish professional racing driver. He is the son of Örnulf Wirdheim, also a racing driver. Björn began racing karts, competing in his first race, at the age of 10. His main achievement to ...

who drove in the ENEOS last season, moved to Nissan's Kondō Racing. **

Lexus is the luxury vehicle division of the Japanese automaker Toyota. The Lexus brand is marketed in more than 90 countries and territories worldwide and is Japan's largest-selling make of premium cars. It has ranked among the 10 largest Japanese ...

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

and

as their drivers, while

João Paulo de Oliveira João Paulo Lima de Oliveira (born 13 July 1981) is a Brazilian professional racing driver currently competing in the Japanese Super GT series. He won the Super GT GT300 class championship in both 2020 and 2022 and the Formula Nippon championship ...

who was with Kondō Racing filled the void in the

Impul Hoshino Impul Co., Ltd., (known as Impul) is a Japanese automotive aftermarket company based in Setagaya-ku, Tokyo. Founded by Nissan's factory driver, Kazuyoshi Hoshino, the company exclusively produces aftermarket parts for Nissans, such as body ...

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 , trade name, trading as Nissan Motor Corporation and often shortened to Nissan, is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automobile manufacturer headquartered in Nishi-ku, Yokohama, Japan. The company sells ...

and

Mazda , commonly referred to as simply Mazda, is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Fuchū, Hiroshima, Japan. In 2015, Mazda produced 1.5 million vehicles for global sales, the majority of which (nearly one m ...

car absent in the GT300 lineup this year, for the first time since 1995. *Jim Gainer Team, which was using the

Ferrari F430 The Ferrari F430 (Type F131) is a sports car produced by the Italian automobile manufacturer Ferrari from 2004 until 2009 as a successor to the Ferrari 360. The car is an update to the 360 with exterior and performance changes. It was unveiled a ...

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. *

, 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 ''Need for Speed'' (''NFS'') is a racing game franchise published by Electronic Arts and currently developed by Criterion Games, the developers of ''Burnout''. The series generally centers around illicit street racing and tasks players to com ...

) in the

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. They have hired former F1 driver

Ukyo Katayama is a Japanese former racing driver and team manager, most notable for competing for six years in Formula One. He participated in 97 Grands Prix, debuting on 1 March 1992. He scored a total of five championship points, all of them for the Tyrre ...

as their sporting director and former RE Amemiya driver

as their driver. *Team COX left the series after just one season in the series. Goodsmile Racing would later merge with

, bringing Taku Bamba to the team as well. *

Chevrolet Chevrolet ( ), colloquially referred to as Chevy and formally the Chevrolet Motor Division of General Motors Company, is an American automobile division of the American manufacturer General Motors (GM). Louis Chevrolet (1878–1941) and ous ...

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 Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, usually shortened to Porsche (; see #Pronunciation, below), is a German automobile manufacturer specializing in high-performance sports cars, SUVs and sedans, headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany ...

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 last season was given to the

Hankook Hankook Tire & Technology (; , also known simply as Hankook and stylised ), is a South Korean tire company. Based in Seoul, Hankook is the seventh largest tire company in the world. History Hankook Tire was established by Jae Hun Chung's grandf ...

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 is a Japanese car racer and TV reporter. He has raced in several 24-hour races, including Daytona and LeMans. He also raced 4 times in the Indianapolis 500, in 1994-1996 and 1999, usually for Beck Motorsports. He also drove in one CART Champi ...

. Hasemi Motorsport was later to announce their withdrawal from the series.

Calendar

Notes: * – Race stopped early due to bad weather, full points awarded. * – The Okayama round was still considered Round 1. * – Race stopped early due to energy curfew, full points awarded.

Schedule

Impact of Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami

Drivers and teams

GT500

GT300

Team Movements

GT500

GT300

Calendar

Standings

GT500 Drivers

GT300 Drivers

References

External links