In the most obvious way, Fuji Speedway is located at the base of Mt. Fuji. For the Japanese, Mt. Fuji is greater than the sum of its 12,388 vertical feet. Its cone rises up above the landscape and in some ways it's larger than Japanese culture itself. Fuji's literal translation is "without equal" and it's appropriate that we came here to witness the running of an All-Japan Grand Touring Car Championship (JGTC) race. Much like Fuji, the JGTC has no equal because this series represents the pinnacle of Japanese motorsports.
We're here on a Friday, two days before Round 5 of the 2002 Autobacs Japan Special GT Cup. There's something completely serene about a vacant circuit right before a race-like the calm before the storm. This feeling is magnified even more so with Fuji-san looming over me. I'm overcome with the urge to shave my head, assume the lotus position, and start reciting Buddhist chants. And yet as mesmerizing as the background is, the foreground is even more entrancing.
Fuji's pit row area is littered with all manner of GT hardware. Comparisons to a GT3 dream garage don't work here because I'm not in my jammies and Mr. Bobo, my teddy, is nowhere to be found. This is not a dream. This is real and as soon as I come to grips with this, my reality is shattered as the cars fire up and explode down the pit lane for the first practice session. The initial sound of these cars is akin to a 12-gauge being fired off in the forest. It's like getting a wake up call from Sam Kinison: "Ow! Oww! Good morning, Mr. Naderi!! Ow! Oww! Owww!!"
Our Honorable Hosts
We came to Fuji as guests of the Autobacs Seven Co., LTD. You may know these guys better as the proprietors of the Super Autobacs chain. Because a Super Autobacs location is coming to Southern California in January, the powers that be wanted us to see one of their side gigs, in which they play no less than the role of title sponsor of this series. Our guides were the good people from Paramax Consulting and our host was Hitoshi Nakagawa, the man in charge of the Autobacs Seven Motorsports Group. Cruising into Fuji with Nakagawa is like watching a Yankees home game with Steinbrenner. It was a rare moment in which we felt special-and not in that short bus kind of way.
In the romance car on the way to the race, we asked Nakagawa a few questions about why Autobacs chose to be involved with the JGTC. "Because the JGTC is the top Japanese motorsports series," said Nakagawa. "There is a lot of prestige to be involved with this series. We also do market research at the races and surveys," he added. "Essentially, the people who come to the GT races are the same ones who shop at Autobacs."
With such a massive commitment behind a title sponsorship, does Nakagawa-san feel like this has been successful for Autobacs? "In terms of exposure, yes, very much so; but in terms of the sales of tuning parts-not yet. We're on the road to getting there."
The motorsports efforts of Autobacs are not limited to the title sponsorship of the JGTC, as the company also helps form the acronym of the ARTA Project (Autobacs Racing Team Aguri). The team was created as a partnership with Aguri Suzuki to help foster the skills of promising Japanese drivers, and its JGTC effort is just one branch of its extensive program, which also includes French and German F3 teams and a car in the Toyota Atlantic series. ARTA's GT team includes the GT500 NSX driven by Katsutomo Kaneishi and Keiichi Tsuchiya, who is better known as The Drift King. You may have also noticed that our cover car is the ARTA GT300 MR-S piloted by Morio Nitta and Shinichi Takagi.