Endurance racing in Aichi

I went and saw an endurance race to meet a race team. They are called K&G and are based in Suzuka and run the 'recreation motorsports club.'


They race in 4 hour endurance races with multiple drivers in production cars - looks like a lot of fun and not too bad for the wallet. I was surprised to see that the car was an automatic though, but they racing in their own separate class for automatics. Costs are kept down as the team meets once a month to do all the maintenance themselves.

With it being a team, there is also an opportunity to learn from getting your hands dirty, and also from group meetings where we try out other cars. First 'Soukoukai' is in February - I'm looking forward to it. I'm going to try and see if I can fit in an FJ1600 (although I'm not hopeful as I'm 190cm (6ft3)).

A new tire 2 and a half hours ago! Quick pit work still resulted in second in class.

FJ1600 (stands for Formula Japan) - I shall fit I shall fit!

Visiting Inagawa circuit

I was planning on taking park in this meeting at Inagawa in Hyogo prefecture but have decided to let the body recover in the off season with a view to getting back in the saddle in the new year. I was glad I did too as there were 2 very nasty crashes during the finals.

In the Rotax class someone got (leaned?) into the tire barrier (the one at the right hand side of the picture above) which strew tires all over the circuit and bought out the red flag. The driver was limping but seemed ok, but I think he'll need a new frame. Another crash happened in the expert class where the 4 leaders were all pushing each other. Right at the end of the straight (and Inagawa has a very long one) just as the leader was getting on the brakes he got turned into the pit wall and was thrown out of the kart. It was a good sight to see him get up (while his body was still spinning in the middle of the track) , then run and jump over the pit wall!

Some handy footage from on-board from You Tube:



And where it is:


大きな地図で見る