2009 Super GT Series

The 2009 Autobacs Super GT Series was the seventeenth season of the Japan Automobile Federation Super GT Championship including the All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship (JGTC) era and the fifth season as the Super GT series.

It marked as well as the twenty-seventh season of a JAF-sanctioned sports car racing championship dating back to the All Japan Sports Prototype Championship. The season opener on March 22, was moved to Okayama, due to the continued renovation of Suzuka in preparation for the 2009 Japanese Grand Prix. The season finale on November 8 also was moved to Motegi, instead of Fuji. Due to the worldwide economic crisis, race weekends were two days instead of three.

André Lotterer and Juichi Wakisaka claimed the GT500 title in the Petronas TOM'S Lexus SC430. The team also won their respective teams title. Manabu Orido and Tatsuya Kataoka won the GT300 title in the Racing Project Bandoh IS350 by three points from Nobuteru Taniguchi and Ryo Orime.

Originally the three makers agreed to unify engine specification to 3.4L V8 engines (the same configuration of Formula Nippon at the time). However, due to the aforementioned economic crisis, Nissan encountered difficulties to develop a suitable engine for their GT-R, and chose to bear a performance ballast while using the same engine as last year. Honda continued to use their mid-engine NSX with performance ballast as the regulations originally planned to mandate front-engine cars. This was also their last year in Super GT with the original NSX, as they announced they would use a new vehicle (the HSV-010) starting in the 2010 season. Honda returned with the NSX in 2014 following the unveiling of the second-generation concept car in 2014, later revised to be based on the production model in 2017; both of which ran midship engine layout until 2019 season.

Team Nova entered the series with a Le Mans spec Aston Martin DBR9. It was the first Aston Martin car to participate the series history (including JGTC), and also the first European and non-Honda/Nissan/Toyota car in GT500 since the 2006 season (a Maserati MC12 did participate the pre-season test in 2006 season but withdraw from the series later). The DBR9 only ran at the first round at Okayama and the two rounds at Fuji, and as of July 2020 is the last non-Japanese car to compete in GT500.

The apr Racing Team, which had used the Toyota MR-S for a long time decided to discontinue their use of MR-S, and for this season decided to replace it with a mid-engined Toyota Corolla Axio instead.

The Cusco, the only team using an AWD car (Subaru Impreza), left the series as they wanted to concentrate on off-road events. However, Subaru cars were not absent from the series as R&D Sport used a Legacy B4 for round 6, 7 and 9.

Thunder Asia Racing, a team from Singapore, entered round 4 at Sepang with a Mosler MT900R. Their full participation in 2010 season was confirmed after the 2009 season ended.

In order to combat sandbagging, where a team would intentionally perform poorly in order to secure a more favorable weight handicap, the success ballast formula was changed starting from this season: the ballast would be halved in the penultimate race and lifted altogether in final race for teams that participated in every round of the season. Teams missing only one round receive halved-ballast in the final race instead.

Team	Make	Car	Engine	No.	Drivers	Tyre	Rounds
Nismo	Nissan	Nissan GT-R GT500	Nissan VK45DE 4.5 L V8	1	Satoshi Motoyama	B	All
					Benoît Tréluyer		1–5, 7–9
					Michael Krumm		6
Hasemi Motorsport	Nissan	Nissan GT-R GT500	Nissan VK45DE 4.5 L V8	3	Ronnie Quintarelli	M	All
					Hironobu Yasuda		All
Lexus Team LeMans ENEOS	Lexus	Lexus SC430 GT500	Lexus RV8KG 3.4 L V8	6	Daisuke Ito	B	All
					Björn Wirdheim		All
Autobacs Racing Team Aguri	Honda	Honda NSX GT500	Honda C32B 3.4 L V6	8	Ralph Firman	B	All
					Takuya Izawa		All
Team Impul	Nissan	Nissan GT-R GT500	Nissan VK45DE 4.5 L V8	12	Tsugio Matsuda	B	All
					Sébastien Philippe		All
Keihin Real Racing	Honda	Honda NSX GT500	Honda C32B 3.4 L V6	17	Toshihiro Kaneishi	B	All
					Koudai Tsukakoshi		All
					Katsutomo Kaneishi		6
Team Yoshiki and Dome Project	Honda	Honda NSX GT500	Honda C32B 3.4 L V6	18	Ryo Michigami	B	All
					Takashi Kogure		All
Team Nova	Aston Martin	Aston Martin DBR9	Aston Martin DBR9 6.0 L V12	21	Akihiro Tsuzuki	Y	1, 3, 7
					Takeshi Tsuchiya		1, 3, 7
Kondo Racing	Nissan	Nissan GT-R GT500	Nissan VK45DE 4.5 L V8	24	João Paulo de Oliveira	Y	All
					Seiji Ara		All
Nakajima Racing	Honda	Honda NSX GT500	Honda C32B 3.4 L V6	32	Loïc Duval	D	All
					Yuhki Nakayama		All
Lexus Team Kraft	Lexus	Lexus SC430 GT500	Lexus RV8KG 3.4 L V8	35	Hiroaki Ishiura	B	All
					Kazuya Oshima		All
Lexus Team Petronas TOM'S	Lexus	Lexus SC430 GT500	Lexus RV8KG 3.4 L V8	36	Juichi Wakisaka	B	All
					André Lotterer		All
Lexus Team ZENT Cerumo	Lexus	Lexus SC430 GT500	Lexus RV8KG 3.4 L V8	38	Yuji Tachikawa	B	All
					Richard Lyons		All
Lexus Team SARD	Lexus	Lexus SC430 GT500	Lexus RV8KG 3.4 L V8	39	Kohei Hirate	D	All
					André Couto		All
Team Kunimitsu	Honda	Honda NSX GT500	Honda C32B 3.4 L V6	100	Yuji Ide	B	All
					Shinya Hosokawa		1–2, 4–7, 9
					Kosuke Matsuura		3, 8

Team	Make	Car	Engine	No.	Drivers	Tyre	Rounds
Cars Tokai Dream28	Mooncraft	Mooncraft Shiden	Toyota 1UZ-FE 4.4 L V8	2	Hiroki Katoh	Y	All
					Kazuho Takahashi		1
					Hiroki Yoshimoto		2–9
Avanzza Rosso	Vemac	Vemac RD320R	Honda C32B 3.4 L V6	4	Yoshihiro Ito	K	6
					Subaru Yamamoto		6
					Michito Uezumi		6
					Yoshihiro Ito	Y	9
					Igor Sushko		9
				666	Shogo Suho	Y	All
					Junichiro Yamashita		All
					Takashi Miyamoto		3, 6
Team Mach	Vemac	Vemac RD320R	Porsche M96/77 3.6 L F6	5	Tetsuji Tamanaka	Y	All
					Akazame Oyaji		All
M7 RE Amemiya Racing	Mazda	Mazda RX-7	Mazda RE20B 2.0 L 3-rotor	7	Nobuteru Taniguchi	Y	All
					Ryo Orime		All
Jim Gainer Racing	Ferrari	Ferrari 360	Ferrari F131B 3.6 L V8	10	Masayuki Ueda	Y	All
					Masataka Kawaguchi		All
		Ferrari F430	Ferrari F136E 4.3 L V8	11	Tetsuya Tanaka		All
					Katsuyuki Hiranaka		All
Racing Project Bandoh	Lexus	Lexus IS350	Lexus RV8J 3.4 L V8	19	Tatsuya Kataoka	Y	All
					Manabu Orido		All
Team Taisan	Porsche	Porsche 996 GT3-RS	Porsche M96/77 3.6 L F6	26	Haruki Kurosawa	Y	1–4, 6–7, 9
					Tsubasa Abe		1–3, 5–9
					Katsuhiko Tsutsui		4, 6, 8
					Tsubasa Kurosawa		5
Team Takeuchi with Shift	Lexus	Lexus IS350	Lexus RV8J 3.4 L V8	30	Kota Sasaki	K	1–3
					Naoya Yamano		1–3
				52	Kota Sasaki		4–9
					Naoya Yamano		4–6
					Yuhi Sekiguchi		6–9
apr	Toyota	Toyota Corolla Axio apr GT	Toyota 2GR-FSE 3.5 L V6	31	Yuya Sakamoto	Y	All
					Hideki Yamauchi		1–4
					Kyosuke Mineo		5–9
					Takamori.com		6
				74	Takuto Iguchi	M	All
					Yuji Kunimoto		All
Hankook KTR	Porsche	Porsche 997 GT3-RSR	Porsche M97/80 3.8 L F6	33	Mitsuhiro Kinoshita	H	3, 5, 7
					Masami Kageyama		3, 5, 7
Autobacs Racing Team Aguri	ASL	ASL ARTA Garaiya	Nissan VQ35DE 3.5 L V6	43	Morio Nitta	M	All
					Shinichi Takagi		All
MOLA	Nissan	Nissan Fairlady Z	Nissan VQ35DE 3.5 L V6	46	Kazuki Hoshino	Y	All
					Masataka Yanagida		All
Tomei Sports	Porsche	Porsche 996 GT3-RSR	Porsche M96/77 3.6 L F6	55	Yutaka Yamagishi	Y	1–7, 9
					Hiroshi Koizumi		1–7, 9
R&D Sport	Subaru	Subaru Legacy B4	Subaru EJ20 2.0 L Turbo F4	62	Shogo Mitsuyama	Y	6–7, 9
					Tetsuya Yamano		6–7, 9
JLOC	Lamborghini	Lamborghini Murcielago RG-1	Lamborghini L535 6.0 L V12	66	Koji Yamanishi	Y	All
					Atsushi Yogo		All
					Marco Apicella		3
		Lamborghini Gallardo RG-3	Lamborghini 07L1 5.2 L V10	87	Hiroyuki Iiri		All
					Hisashi Wada		All
				88	Hideshi Matsuda		All
					Yuya Sakamoto		All
Thunder Asia Racing	Mosler	Mosler MT900R	GM LS7 7.0 L V8	69	Melvin Choo	Y	4
					Martin Short		4
Team Daishin	Ferrari	Ferrari F430	Ferrari F136E 4.3 L V8	81	Takayuki Aoki	Y	All
					Tomonobu Fujii		All
					Koji Matsuda		6
Arktech Motorsports	Porsche	Porsche Boxster	Porsche M96/77 3.6 L F6	110	Kim Han Bong	K	1–3
					Daisuke Ikeda		1, 8
					Tatsuya Tanigawa		2–3, 5, 8
					Takashi Ohi		5
		Porsche 996 GT3-RSR	Porsche M96/73 3.6 L F6	111	Takaya Tsubobayashi		1–3
					Igor Sushko		1
					Daisuke Ikeda		2–4
					Tojiro Azuma		4
				112	Takashi Ohi		7, 9
					Yoshiaki Nakayama		7
					Keita Sawa		8–9
					Aaron Caratti		8
Studie GLAD Racing	BMW	BMW Z4M	BMW S62B50 4.9 L V8	808	Shozo Tagahara	Y	1–3, 5–9
					Yasushi Kikuchi		1–3, 5–7
					Taku Bamba		6, 8–9

Round	Race	Circuit	Date
1	Okayama GT 300 km	Okayama International Circuit	March 22
2	Suzuka GT 300 km	Suzuka Circuit	April 19
3	Fuji GT 400 km	Fuji Speedway	May 4
4	Super GT International Series Malaysia	Sepang International Circuit	June 21
5	SUGO GT 300 km	Sportsland SUGO	July 26
6	Pokka GT Summer Special	Suzuka Circuit	August 23
7	Fuji GT 300 km	Fuji Speedway	September 13
8	Autopolis GT 300 km	Autopolis	October 18
9	Motegi GT 250 km	Twin Ring Motegi	November 8

As a measure of cost reduction, the two longest race, as well as the final race in the series' distance in the series was shortened in this season. This included the trimming of the traditional 1000km race in Suzuka to 700 km. However, to avoid 1-pit strategy that caused unfairness to some teams, teams were required to pit twice in the Fuji 400 km race.

Rd	Circuit	GT500 Winning Team	GT300 Winning Team	Results
		GT500 Winning Drivers	GT300 Winning Drivers
1	Okayama	#24 HIS Kondo Racing GT-R	#19 WedsSport IS350	Results
		João Paulo de Oliveira Seiji Ara	Manabu Orido Tatsuya Kataoka
2	Suzuka	#38 ZENT Cerumo SC430	#33 Hankook Porsche	Results
		Yuji Tachikawa Richard Lyons	Mitsuhiro Kinoshita Masami Kageyama
3	Mt. Fuji	#1 MOTUL Autech GT-R	#43 ARTA Garaiya	Results
		Satoshi Motoyama Benoît Tréluyer	Morio Nitta Shinichi Takagi
4	Kuala Lumpur	#3 Hasemi Tomica Ebbro GT-R	#2 I.M Jihan Co.Ltd•Apple Shiden	Results
		Ronnie Quintarelli Hironobu Yasuda	Hiroki Katoh Hiroki Yoshimoto
5	Sportsland SUGO	#1 MOTUL Autech GT-R	#33 Hankook Porsche	Results
		Satoshi Motoyama Benoît Tréluyer	Mitsuhiro Kinoshita Masami Kageyama
6	Suzuka	#35 Kraft SC430	#46 S Road Mola Z	Results
		Hiroaki Ishiura Kazuya Oshima	Kazuki Hoshino Masataka Yanagida
7	Mt. Fuji	#8 ARTA NSX	#81 Daishin Ferrari F430	Results
		Ralph Firman Takuya Izawa	Takayuki Aoki Tomonobu Fujii
8	Autopolis	#36 Petronas TOM'S SC430	#11 Jim Gainer Advan F430	Results
		Juichi Wakisaka André Lotterer	Tetsuya Tanaka Katsuyuki Hiranaka
9	Motegi	#8 ARTA NSX	#81 Daishin Ferrari F430	Results
		Ralph Firman Takuya Izawa	Takayuki Aoki Tomonobu Fujii

Scoring system

Rank Driver OKA SUZ FUJ SEP SUG SUZ FUJ AUT MOT PTS 1 Juichi Wakisaka André Lotterer 11 2 2 6 7 8 3 1 2 88 2 Ralph Firman Takuya Izawa 3 14 3 3 14 12 1 4 1 81 3 Satoshi Motoyama 13 11 1 8 1 6 2 2 14 78 4 Benoît Tréluyer 13 11 1 8 1 2 2 14 73 5 Toshihiro Kaneishi Koudai Tsukakoshi 5 6 12 2 6 10 4 Ret 3 51 6 Ryo Michigami Takashi Kogure 2 5 13 12 3 4 8 5 10 50 7 Ronnie Quintarelli Hironobu Yasuda 12 13 7 1 9 2 6 8 12 49 8 João Paulo de Oliveira Seiji Ara 1 8 4 5 13 11 13 3 11 48 9 Hiroaki Ishiura Kazuya Oshima 9 7 5 9 12 1 7 7 9 44 10 Yuji Tachikawa Richard Lyons 6 1 9 10 10 3 10 11 13 41 11 Tsugio Matsuda Sébastien Philippe 4 3 15 7 8 5 15 Ret 7 36 12 Daisuke Ito Björn Wirdheim 10 4 6 14 5 Ret 4 10 4 35 13 Yuji Ide 8 12 11 4 4 9 12 6 8 29 14 André Couto Kohei Hirate 15 10 10 13 2 7 11 12 5 27 15 Shinya Hosokawa 8 12 4 4 9 12 8 24 16 Loïc Duval Yuhki Nakayama 7 9 8 11 11 Ret 9 9 6 18 17 Kosuke Matsuura 11 6 5 18 Michael Krumm 6 5 19 Katsutomo Kaneishi 10 1 Akihiro Tsuzuki Takeshi Tsuchiya 14 14 14 0 Rank Driver OKA SUZ FUJ SEP SUG SUZ FUJ AUT MOT PTS

Colour Result Gold Winner Silver Second place Bronze Third place Green Points finish Blue Non-points finish Non-classified finish (NC) Purple Retired (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)

Rank[1][2]	Team	No.	OKA	SUZ	FUJ	SEP	SUG	SUZ	FUJ	AUT	MOT	Pts.
1	Lexus Team Petronas TOM'S	36	11	2	2	6	7	8	3	1	2	112
2	Autobacs Racing Team Aguri	8	3	14	3	3	14	12	1	4	1	102
3	Nismo	1	13	11	1	8	1	6	2	2	14	101
4	Team Yoshiki & Dome Project	18	2	5	13	12	3	4	8	5	10	75
5	KEIHIN Real Racing	17	5	6	12	2	6	10	4	Ret	3	72
6	Hasemi Motorsport	3	12	13	7	1	9	2	6	8	12	71
7	Kondo Racing	24	1	8	4	5	13	11	13	3	11	69
8	Lexus Team Kraft	35	9	7	5	9	12	1	7	7	9	68
9	Lexus Team ZENT Cerumo	38	6	1	9	10	10	3	10	11	13	63
10	Team Impul	12	4	3	15	7	8	5	15	Ret	7	55
11	Lexus Team LeMans ENEOS	6	10	4	6	14	5	Ret	5	10	4	54
12	Team Kunimitsu	100	8	12	11	4	4	9	12	6	8	52
13	Lexus Team SARD	39	15	10	10	13	2	7	11	12	5	48
14	Nakajima Racing	32	7	9	8	11	11	Ret	9	9	6	39
15	Team Nova	21	14		14				14			3
Rank	Team	No.	OKA	SUZ	FUJ	SEP	SUG	SUZ	FUJ	AUT	MOT	Pts.

Scoring system

Rank Driver OKA SUZ FUJ SEP SUG SUZ FUJ AUT MOT PTS 1 Manabu Orido Tatsuya Kataoka 1 8 5 2 5 6 4 3 3 85 2 Nobuteru Taniguchi Ryo Orime 3 2 3 3 11 7 DNS 2 2 82 3 Tetsuya Tanaka Katsuyuki Hiranaka 4 4 Ret 8 3 5 2 1 4 79 4 Takayuki Aoki Tomonobu Fujii 12 6 2 DNS 4 8 1 18 1 71 5 Morio Nitta Shinichi Takagi 2 5 1 10 9 2 7 4 14 71 6 Hiroki Katoh 6 7 9 1 2 3 5 16 16 63 7 Kazuki Hoshino Masataka Yanagida 7 3 6 4 6 1 9 8 7 62 8 Hiroki Yoshimoto 7 9 1 2 3 5 16 16 58 9 Mitsuhiro Kinoshita Masami Kageyama 1 1 6 45 10 Takuto Iguchi Yuji Kunimoto 5 9 8 16 8 4 12 7 5 32 11 Yuya Sakamoto 9 11 7 6 10 18 15 5 6 23 12 Koji Yamanishi Atsushi Yogo 18 Ret 18 5 13 17 3 11 8 20 13 Tsubasa Abe 10 10 4 7 16 14 9 9 18 14 Haruki Kurosawa 10 10 4 Ret 16 14 9 12 15 Kyosuke Mineo 10 18 15 5 6 12 16 Hideki Yamauchi 9 11 7 6 11 17 Kota Sasaki 8 17 11 7 15 9 13 13 10 10 18 Tetsuji Tamanaka Akazame Oyaji 13 12 10 12 16 Ret 8 6 15 9 19 Naoya Yamano 8 17 11 7 15 9 9 20 Kazuho Takahashi 6 5 21 Tsubasa Kurosawa 7 4 22 Yuhi Sekiguchi 9 13 13 10 3 23 Masayuki Ueda Masataka Kawaguchi DNS 16 15 9 20 15 17 19 13 2 24 Katsuhiko Tsutsui Ret 16 9 2 25 Hideshi Matsuda Yuya Sakamoto Ret 13 19 Ret 12 10 10 12 11 2 26 Shozo Tagahara Ret DNQ Ret Ret Ret Ret 10 Ret 1 27 Taku Bamba Ret 10 Ret 1 Rank Driver OKA SUZ FUJ SEP SUG SUZ FUJ AUT MOT PTS

Colour Result Gold Winner Silver Second place Bronze Third place Green Points finish Blue Non-points finish Non-classified finish (NC) Purple Retired (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)

• Super GT official website (in English)