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Heritage
JGTC (Super GT from 2005)
Japan Grand Touring Car (JGTC) is the leading category of touring car racing in Japan and the most popular motor sport series drawing legions of fans to the circuits. Races at the Fuji Speedway near Tokyo attract 50,000-plus crowds providing a perfect opportunity to raise the profile of Bridgestone's brand and demonstrate the excellence of Bridgestone products to motor racing fans and the general public.
The cars are much heavier than F1 cars and use low-profile tyres with much less air volume. But the long race distances - ranging from 300km to 500km - and the need for speed in qualifying create tremendous technical hurdles to the development of high-performance, high-endurance tyres. The great variety of car models also puts heavy demands on tyre makers because they must develop and produce a range of tyres for the various models.
A maximum of three sets of tyres can be used from qualifying through to the start of the race. One of those is kept by the race organiser to be used for the race start, leaving two for qualifying. Before the start of qualifying, the weather, the circuit layout characteristics, and the track condition must be evaluated. Tricky strategic questions arise in developing tyres that can achieve good qualifying results and then provide stable performance from the start of the race to the first pit stop.
Bridgestone provided tyres and support to more GT500 cars than any other tyre manufacturer in 2003 but competition with rival tyre makers in this category is intensifying and staying on top demands ceaseless development. Rival tyre makers have made a ferocious drive to catch up. In every race, Bridgestone engineers face the difficult challenge of getting results from tyres supplied to Toyota, Nissan and Honda machines, each with different characteristics. Even so, Bridgestone has supplied tyres to the champion every year since the inception of the category in 1994. The success means Bridgestone constantly faces the issue of handicap weights meaning Bridgestone must compete with other tyre makers in heavier cars. But this stiff competition pushes Bridgestone to keep improving.
The major regulation changes in 2003 led manufacturers to develop and introduce new machines. The battle for the 2003 championship among Bridgestone-supported teams went down to the wire at the final race in Suzuka. NISMO (Skyline) and Team Le Mans (Supra) swapped positions in the race several times as they fought for victory, but in the end it was the Skyline which won a championship for the first time since 1999 as Satoshi Motoyama took home a double title in GT and Formula Nippon.
Bridgestone supplied teams dominated in 2004 filling the top nine places with Motoyama retaining his title along with fellow driver Richard Lyons in a Nissan Fairlady. The series also expanded with a race at the Sepang circuit in Malaysia giving Bridgestone the opportunity to increase global awareness of its product.
The 2005 season proved a similar story as Bridgestone-supplied teams filled the top eight places, the pairing of Toranosuke Takagi and Yuji Tachikawa triumphing in a Toyota Supra.
Making its’ debut in the 2006 Super GT season was the Bridgestone supported Lexus SC430. Juichi Wakisaka and Andre Lotterer raced well in the new vehicle and successfully managed to take it all the way to the championship title. Bridgestone also reaped the benefits of a successful season as they managed to fill the series’ top eight places. With another triumphant season under their belt, Bridgestone have dominated this category for 13 consecutive years.
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