1997 Japanese Touring Car Championship

The 1997 Japanese Touring Car Championship season was the 13th edition of the series. It began at Fuji Speedway on 6 April and finished after eight events, also at Fuji Speedway on 2 November. The championship was won by Osamu Nakako, driving for Mugen Honda.^[1][2][3]

Osamu Nakako won the championship driving a Honda Accord.

1997 Japanese Touring Car Championship

Previous

1996

Next

1998

Teams & Drivers

Team Car No. Drivers Rounds Mugen Honda Honda Accord 1 Naoki Hattori 8 Object T Toyota Corona EXiV 11 Takahiko Hara All Nismo Nissan Primera GT 12 Kazuyoshi Hoshino All Asano Racing Service BMW 318i 13 Takeo Asano 8 Mooncraft Mugen Honda Honda Accord 14 Ryō Michigami All Mugen Honda Honda Accord 15 Takuya Kurosawa All 16 Osamu Nakako All Endless Sport BMW 318i 18 Mitsuhiro Kinoshita 1, 8 Racing Project Bandoh Toyota Corona EXiV 19 Katsutomo Kaneishi All Hitotsuyama Racing BMW 318i 21 Yasushi Hitotsuyama 1, 3-5, 8 Mikio Hitotsuyama 2, 6-7 Object T Toyota Corona EXiV 22 Hidetoshi Mitsusada 8 Nismo Nissan Primera GT 23 Satoshi Motoyama All Tsuchiya Engineering Toyota Chaser 24 Keiichi Tsuchiya 8 Toyota Corona EXiV 25 Masami Kageyama All Mooncraft Mugen Honda Honda Accord 33 Hideki Okada All Auto Tech Racing BMW 318i 35 Akihiko Nakaya 5-6 Toyota Team TOM's Toyota Chaser 36 Masanori Sekiya All Toyota Corona EXiV 37 Michael Krumm 1-4 Toyota Chaser 5-8 Toyota Team Cerumo Toyota Chaser 38 Hironori Takeuchi All Toyota Corona EXiV 39 Juan Manuel Silva 1-6 Toyota Chaser 7-8 Dandelion Racing Toyota Corona EXiV 68 Tetsuya Tanaka All Team Something Toyota Corolla AE110 72 Masahiro Matsunaga 1-6, 8 Minoru Tanaka 7 HKS Opel Team Japan Opel Vectra 87 Akira Iida All

Calendar

Round		Circuit	Date	Pole Position	Fastest Lap	Winning driver	Winning team	Ref
1	R1	Fuji Speedway, Shizuoka	6 April	Satoshi Motoyama[4]	Races cancelled due to adverse weather conditions.			[5]
	R2			Ryō Michigami[6]				[7]
2	R3	TI Circuit Aida, Okayama	11 May	Osamu Nakako	Satoshi Motoyama	Takuya Kurosawa	Mugen Honda	[8]
	R4			Osamu Nakako	Osamu Nakako	Osamu Nakako	Mugen Honda	[9]
3	R5	Sportsland SUGO, Miyagi	25 May	Michael Krumm	Kazuyoshi Hoshino	Michael Krumm	Toyota Team TOM's	[10]
	R6			Michael Krumm	Hideki Okada	Kazuyoshi Hoshino	Nismo	[11]
4	R7	Suzuka Circuit, Mie	8 June	Takuya Kurosawa	Takuya Kurosawa	Takuya Kurosawa	Mugen Honda	[12]
	R8			Takuya Kurosawa	Satoshi Motoyama	Satoshi Motoyama	Nismo	[13]
5	R9	Mine Central Circuit, Yamaguchi	13 July	Satoshi Motoyama	Osamu Nakako	Osamu Nakako	Mugen Honda	[14]
	R10			Satoshi Motoyama	Ryō Michigami	Osamu Nakako	Mugen Honda	[15]
6	R11	Sendai Hi-Land Raceway, Miyagi	7 September	Akira Iida	Kazuyoshi Hoshino	Satoshi Motoyama	Nismo	[16]
	R12			Akira Iida	Kazuyoshi Hoshino	Akira Iida	HKS Opel Team Japan	[17]
7	R13	Tokachi International Speedway, Hokkaidō	21 September	Satoshi Motoyama	Michael Krumm	Takuya Kurosawa	Mugen Honda	[18]
	R14			Takuya Kurosawa	Ryō Michigami	Takuya Kurosawa	Mugen Honda	[19]
8	R15	Fuji Speedway, Shizuoka	2 November	Naoki Hattori	Osamu Nakako	Osamu Nakako	Mugen Honda	[20]
	R16			Naoki Hattori	Naoki Hattori	Kazuyoshi Hoshino	Nismo	[21]

Championship Standings

Points were awarded 15, 12, 9, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 to the top 10 finishers in each race, with no bonus points for pole positions or fastest laps. Drivers would have counted their best 12 scores, but with the cancellation of the first two races of the season, only the ten best were counted.

Pos Driver FUJ AID SUG SUZ MIN SEN TOK FUJ Pts 1 Osamu Nakako C C 2 1 8 Ret 4 5 1 1 4 10 Ret 2 1 Ret 107 2 Takuya Kurosawa C C 1 4 5 6 1 2 Ret 6 7 6 1 1 10 4 102 3 Satoshi Motoyama C C 4 2 3 3 Ret 1 DSQ 3 1 Ret 2 4 6 DSQ 100 4 Kazuyoshi Hoshino C C 6 14 2 1 2 6 4 11 2 Ret 3 Ret 8 1 95 5 Ryō Michigami C C 3 3 Ret Ret 5 4 2 2 13 2 5 3 5 12 88 6 Masami Kageyama C C 5 6 9 8 3 3 5 7 5 7 6 11 4 13 61 7 Katsutomo Kaneishi C C Ret 10 Ret 7 11 10 3 14 Ret 5 4 5 3 3 52 8 Akira Iida C C 10 Ret 4 5 6 Ret Ret DNS 3 1 12 DNS 13 Ret 43 9 Hironori Takeuchi C C 9 5 6 9 7 7 8 9 8 4 8 8 11 6 43 10 Michael Krumm C C 7 9 1 Ret 10 Ret 6 4 Ret DNS Ret 10 12 Ret 35 11 Juan Manuel Silva C C 8 13 7 2 13 8 Ret 12 6 Ret Ret 7 16 Ret 31 12 Hideki Okada C C 12 Ret Ret 4 8 Ret Ret 5 9 Ret 11 9 7 5 30 13 Masanori Sekiya C C 13 7 11 Ret 12 9 Ret DNS Ret 3 9 6 18 8 25 14 Naoki Hattori 2 2 24 15 Tetsuya Tanaka C C 11 8 10 10 16 11 7 Ret Ret 8 Ret DNS 9 Ret 14 16 Takahiko Hara C C 15 11 Ret 13 9 Ret Ret 10 11 DNS 7 12 15 7 11 17 Akihiko Nakaya Ret 8 Ret DNS 3 18 Masahiro Matsunaga C C 14 12 12 11 14 12 9 15 10 Ret NC Ret 3 19 Mikio Hitotsuyama 16 Ret 12 9 13 14 2 20 Mitsuhiro Kinoshita C C Ret 9 2 21 Yasushi Hitotsuyama C C 13 12 15 13 10 13 DNS 11 1 22 Minoru Tanaka 10 13 1 23 Keiichi Tsuchiya 14 10 1 24 Takeo Asano 17 Ret 0 NC Hidetoshi Mitsusada Ret DNS 0 Pos Driver FUJ AID SUG SUZ MIN SEN TOK FUJ Pts

Colour Result Gold Winner Silver Second place Bronze Third place Green Points classification Blue Non-points classification Non-classified finish (NC) Purple Retired, not classified (Ret) Red Did not qualify (DNQ) Did not pre-qualify (DNPQ) Black Disqualified (DSQ) White Did not start (DNS) Withdrew (WD) Race cancelled (C) Blank Did not practice (DNP) Did not arrive (DNA) Excluded (EX) Bold - Pole Italics - Fastest lap