2006 Japan Le Mans Challenge

The Japan Le Mans Challenge was a series of endurance races held in Japan, for motor racing cars, following the style of the famous Le Mans 24 Hours endurance race held every year in France.

The 2006 Japan Le Mans Challenge season was the first ever season for the Japan Le Mans Challenge, a series created by SERO, and run under sanctioning from the ACO, to follow 24 Hours of Le Mans rules.

It began May 14, 2006, and ended October 29, 2006 after only three races.

For the 2006 series, three different Japanese motor racing circuits were used.

Four different categories of racing cars were permitted ; LMP1, LMP2, GT1, and GT2.

The 2007 series was not deemed to be a success, and the series was cancelled afterwards.

2006 Pre-season

In the buildup to the first season of JLMC, it was apparent from the start that unlike the Le Mans Series in Europe, JLMC would not start off with great success.

A lack of commitment from major Japanese teams, especially those involved in Super GT, meant that the entry list for the season was small.

An official pre-season test at Sportsland Sugo saw only 8 cars showing up. Even with this, more teams promised to eventually make it to the JLMC grid, including Team Goh, who had earned fame when they won the 2005 24 Hours of Le Mans with the conquering Audi R8.

However, of the teams that did show up, few had quality machinery. The entire LMP2 class was small sportscars that did not actually fit LMP2 regulations. LMP1 was able to boast some machinery that fit LMP rules with a Zytek 05S while there was promise of a new Courage LC70 for Mugen Motorsports on the way as the season went on.

GT classes was made up of a large amount of machinery from Super GT, with an ex-Prodrive Ferrari 550-GTS Maranello and JLOC's Super GT Lamborghini Murcielago RG-1 joined by a privateer Mosler MT900R in GT1.

GT2 was also only able to claim a few competitive entries, with some two Porsche 911 GT3s being mixed with a privateer cars that did not fully reach ACO GT2 specs.

These competitors allowed for the entry list of a mere 12 competitors for the first round at Sportsland Sugo.

Schedule

Rnd	Race	Circuit	Date
1	Sportsland Sugo 1000 km	Sportsland SUGO	May 14
2	Motegi 1000 km	Twin Ring Motegi	July 2
3	Okayama 1000 km	Okayama International Circuit	October 29

Season results

Overall winner in bold.

Rnd	Circuit	LMP1 Winning Team	LMP2 Winning Team	GT1 Winning Team	GT2 Winning Team
Rnd	Circuit	LMP1 Winning Drivers	LMP2 Winning Drivers	GT1 Winning Drivers	GT2 Winning Drivers
1	Sugo	#66 Jidosha Koubou Myst	#18 Aim Sports	#20 Hitotsuyama Racing	#27 Team Kawamura
1	Sugo	Takahiko Shimazawa Masaya Kono Kenji Takeya	Shinsuke Yamakazi Yuji Aso Masaru Tomizawa	Tatsuya Kataoka Naoki Hattori Eiichi Tajima	Koji Aoyama Shinichi Takagi Morio Nitta
2	Motegi	#66 Jidosha Koubou Myst	#4 MYZ	#20 Hitotsuyama Racing	#27 Team Kawamura
2	Motegi	Takahiki Shimazawa Hiroshi Ohta Kenji Takeya	Yuya Sakamoto Yoshihisa Namekata Tomonobu Fujii	Tatsuya Kataoka Naoki Hattori Eiichi Tajima	Koji Aoyama Shinichi Takagi Morio Nitta
3	Okayama	#16 Team Mugen	#4 MYZ	#88 JLOC	#930 Sunburst Rush
3	Okayama	Seiji Ara Haruki Kurosawa	Yuya Sakamoto Yoshihisa Namekata Tomonobu Fujii	Koji Yamanishi Yasatuka Hinoi Wada-Q	Yutaka Matsushima Takeru Inui Masashi Kakuichi

Drivers' Championship

LMP1 standings

Pos	Driver	Team	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Total
1	Takahiko Shimazawa	Jidousya Koubou Myst	5	5	2.5	12.5
2	Kenji Takeya	Jidousya Koubou Myst	5	5		10
3	Hiroshi Ohta	Jidousya Koubou Myst		5	2.5	7.5

LMP2 standings

Pos	Driver	Team	Round 2	Round 3	Total
1	Yuya Sakamoto Yoshihisa Namekata Tomonobu Fuji	MYZ	5	10	15
2	Tomokuni Waki Masayoshi Furuya Hisashi Tsukahara	Jidousya Koubou Myst		8	8
3	Shinsuke Yamazaki Yuji Aso Masaru Tomizawa	Aim Sports	5		5

GT1 standings

Pos	Driver	Team	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Total
1	Tatsuya Kataoka Naoki Hattori Eiichi Tajima	Hitotsuyama Racing	5	5	3	13
2	Osamu Nakajima Masaki Tanaka Hiroya Iijima	Team Leyjun	4	4	4	12
3	Koji Yamanishi Yasutaka Hinoi Hisashi Wada	JLOC			5	5

GT2 standings

Pos	Driver	Team	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Total
1	Koji Aoyama Shinichi Takagi Morio Nitta	Team Kawamura	5	5	8	18
2	Yutaka Matsushima Masashi Kakiuchi Takeshi Inui	Sunburst Rush			10	10
3	Kazuyoshi Takamizawa Akihiko Tsutsumi Tomohiko Sunako	Team Takamizawa	4	4		8

Teams' Championship

Points are awarded to finishers based on how many cars were entered in each class. For classes with a lower car count, the top five were awarded points in the order of 5-4-3-2-1. Classes with more entries were awarded points for the top eight in the order of 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1.

Only the top finishing car in a team scores points towards the championship.

LMP1 standings

Pos	Team	Chassis	Engine	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Total
1	Jidosha Koubou Myst	RS.Oscar SK-52 RS.Oscar SK-93	Toyota 3.0L V8	5	5	3	13
2	Team Mugen	Courage LC70	Mugen MF408S 4.0L V8			5	5
3	Hitotsuyama Racing	Zytek 05S	Zytek ZB408 4.0L V8			4	4

LMP2 standings

Pos	Team	Chassis	Engine	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Total
1	MYZ	Dallara GC-21	Toyota 2.0L I4		5	10	15
2	Jidosha Koubou Myst	RS.KK-LM RS.Oscar SK-5.2	Toyota 3.0L V8	4		8	12
3	AIM Sports	Dallara GC-21	Toyota 2.0L I4	5			5

GT1 standings

Pos	Team	Chassis	Engine	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Total
1	Hitotsuyama Racing	Ferrari 550-GTS Maranello	Ferrari 5.9L V12	5	5	3	13
2	Team LeyJun	Mosler MT900R	Chevrolet 6.0L V8	4	4	4	12
3	JLOC	Lamborghini Murcielago RG-1	Lamborghini 6.0L V12			5	5

GT2 standings

Pos	Team	Chassis	Engine	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Total
1	Team Kawamura	Porsche 911 GT3-RSR	Porsche 3.6L Flat-6	5	5	8	18
2	Proto Works	Mazda RX-7 Porsche 911 GT3-RS	Mazda 2.0L 3-Rotor Porsche 3.6L Flat-6	3	3	6	12
3	Sunburst Rush	Porsche 964 Carrera RS	Porsche 3.6L Flat-6			10	10
4	Team Takamizawa	Porsche 911 GT3-R	Porsche 3.6L Flat-6	4	4		8

External links

JLMC Official Website (English)
JLMC Points Standings
World Sports Racing Prototypes – Results