One day before the final Super GT race of the season at Fuji Speedway, GTA chairman Masaaki Bandoh invited the press to talk about the upcoming season as well as evaluate some of this year’s talking points. Fans of endurance racing have one more reason to be excited. Next to the traditional Fuji 500km round, the series is planning to reive not only the Fuji 500 miles, but also have a time-based long-distance race at Suzuka in late August next year.
Long-distance extravaganza: The GTA plans to revive the Fuji 500 miles as well as hold a time-based endurance race at the Suzuka summer round in 2022
Fans of endurance racing rejoice: As GTA chairman Masaaki Bandoh revealed, Super GT could have a total of three endurance rounds next year. Next to the traditional Fuji 500km race during Golden Week, the series is planning to revive the Fuji 500 miles round, which was last held in 2019, as well as another long-distance race at Suzuka. With the Suzuka 10h being called off for the third year in a row, the traditional late August slot will fall back into the hands of Super GT. Back in September, Masaaki Bandoh revealed plans to potentially revive the 1000km race last held in 2017. However, if the current plans are set into motion, the second visit of the year to the legendary Grand Prix circuit would actually be time-based rather than a race over a fixed distance. The GTA chairman is unsure if Super GT could go the WEC distance, but the plan would be to have the race end during night time, so the checkered flag could be waved at for example 19:00.
Since there’s a strong demand to see fireworks at the end of the race (editor’s note: fireworks are a huge part of Japanese summer festivals), they want to set the finish time to coincide with the fireworks. For that reason, Bandoh thinks that it would be better to have a timed race, so that the fireworks could go off at the checkered flag, since it’s a bit too difficult to have fireworks right in the middle of the race due to debris possibly falling onto the track and cars and due to the fireworks laws. Masaaki Bandoh laughed while saying that he wants the circuit organizers to have the fireworks a bit more spectacular. One of the main issues are the brakes, so the GTA wants to talk with the respective manufacturers. The same goes for the tyre suppliers, as Super GT’s governing body wants them to create rubber than can endure longer distances.
The GTA is satisfied with the introduction of FCY this season
Masaaki Bandoh said the GTA was satisfied with how FCY was implemented in Super GT this year. The reason for its introduction was so that the marshals are able to handle accidents quickly and safely. Needless to say, the safety of the marshals must be guaranteed while at the same time, accidents must be dealt with as quickly as possible while not destroying the flow of the race or causing a massive change in the ranking order for the fans to enjoy the race. In that sense, he thinks they have done well in its inaugural year. While it’s a challenging task for the GTA officials, since the circumstances on how to implement FCY differ from circuit to circuit, Masaak Bandoh said they’re working on improvements for the future. One of the talking points after November’s Motegi round was a rear-end collision between two cars after the FCY activation. As Masaaki Bandoh explained, he doesn’t think that it was a fault of the system but rather one of the drivers not paying enough attention since yellow flags were already being waved shortly before the FCY board got displayed. In other words: While both drivers behaved as they’re supposed to do under yellow flag conditions, one driver didn’t slow down enough when FCY got activated. Bandoh thinks that such an incident should be penalized properly. During the driver’s meeting, all pilots got reminded again to be careful. Additionally, the race stewards got told to check the data loggers even after the fact.
One of the future improvements could be a direct communication between GTA race director Naoki Hattori and the drivers themselves since there were complains that at larger circuits like Suzuka, it’s difficult to understand the radio messages at certain parts of the circuit. Right now, all marshal posts will display the FCY board while Naoki Hattori is counting down to the activation via radio message to the teams, meaning they’re currently not directly communicating to the cars themselves. In the future, the GTA wants to do just that, which is why they’re in talks with the MoSRA (editor’s note: pronounced in Japanese as the movie monster Mothra!), the Motorsports Radio Association, an organization that has been assigned radio frequencies for motorsport by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications and is responsible for their operation. The GTA is currently in the process of having the MoSRA come up with a system on how, for example, the race director can interrupt the communication between the team and drivers, so that they could send announcements like FCY directly into the cars. Masaaki Bandoh thinks that if it’s not possible to have a wireless connection, then circuits like Suzuka just have to spend the money to build an antenna.
Is the GTA planning a similar digital initiative like Super Formula’s NEXT50 project?
Masaaki Bandoh revealed that he had a talk with the JRP (Japan Race Promotion), the promoters of Super Formula, about their plans for DX (editor’s note: digital transformation) and if there’s something they could share, which could cut the costs in half. Bandoh explained that the JRP isn’t just considering television, but other platforms like YouTube as well. If the fans of Super GT are interested in this kind of distribution, he thinks that it’s necessary for them to supply such content and raise satisfaction. One of Super Formula’s goals is to also fully distribute the team radio. While Masaaki Bandoh likes this idea, he also said that due to the nature of the race, not all radio messages are suited for the broadcast. Even in Formula 1 or WEC, not all radio messages are being broadcasted bur rather filtered to some extent. According to Bandoh, it might be difficult to set up dedicated staff for this purpose as well as finding the right balance what kind of radio messages would be interesting for the viewers. The radio messages that are currently being broadcasted on shows like TV TOKYO’s SUPER GT+ first have to be checked with the teams and manufacturers and thus are properly filtered. He thinks that as of right now, it would be very difficult to a live distribution, which is why the GTA first wants to focus on video content before thinking about potential audio content.
Currently no plans to allow hydrogen-powered cars to race in Super GT
Asked by a journalist if it would be possible for a hydrogen-powered car to enter Super GT such as the Toyota Corolla that ran in Super Taikyu this year, Masaaki Bandoh said that they’re currently focused on their own (upcoming) regulations such as the introduction of carbon-neutral fuel in the future. While demo runs are always possible, he wants to leave the participation of such special cars to Super Taikyu for now. Of course, if regulations for such cars (in the sense of competition) could be established in the future, it would be possible for them to enter Super GT.
In addition, Masaaki Bandoh expressed his gratitude to everyone involved in Super GT as well as the fans. As promised, they were able to hold all eight championship rounds despite the restrictions the pandemic demanded. Even for the fans who couldn’t come to the circuits, they were able to provide video content so that everyone at home was able to enjoy Super GT as well. There’s a high possibility that the next season will be another one with the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the GTA wants to build on the foundation they created this year and add more value to have an even more exciting season of motorsport in Japan next year, Masaaki Bandoh said.
Copyright Photos: GTA