Video: Japan GT Championship 2002 Race 4 Highlights

 


Time for the next round of the 2002 Japan GT Championship season...delayed thanks to the release of a little game called Gran Turismo 7! (Seriously, it's awesome. Go out and buy it if you haven't already!)

Anyway, the fourth race of the 2002 championship promised to be a scorcher not just because of the intense racing the JGTC is famed for but because it was hosted by the excellent Sepang International Circuit in hot and humid Malaysia. Sepang had hosted two prior JGTC events but they were exhibition races and didn't count towards the championship.

For 2002 Malaysia would play host to the first overseas race in series history with all prior official rounds being confined to the Japanese home islands. In the previous three races Honda had struck first in the top-tier GT500 category with a win at TI Circuit Aida but then Toyota's Supra's grabbed the next two victories. Nissan had struggled so far but had introduced a new version of the R34 GT-R last round. Only one of the three Skylines was the new model however and this race would actually be the final one for the legendary RB twin-turbo inline-six in the JGTC before all of the cars switched to the new model with a VQ V6. Nissan was keen therefore to score a good result before saying goodbye to its old but successful engine.

The lower GT300 class was the usual dogfight for the series lead with three different cars and teams wining the previous races. On a new track with hot conditions very different from the colder weather of Japan it was highly likely another new winner would emerge in this fourth event but you'll have to watch the video to find out if that's what happened!

Please enjoy!

Comments