The Japan Classic Car Association’s annual “Summer Festival” meeting was held in July at Tsukuba motorsport complex about an hour and a half north of Tokyo. Like most classic race meetings in Japan, this was a one-day affair with practice beginning at 8:00 a.m., with a schedule that ran like clockwork.
There were about 150 entries spread across only five 15-lap races. A walk through this year’s program provides a good look into the core of Japanese historic racing.
The first race was for “S65” class cars built up to 1965 with model run-ons and with original engine, gearbox, body, etc. but reasonably liberal tuning such as multiple Webers and modern wheels. A close, race-long battle was had between the “Team Racing Tiger” Triumph TR4A, “Garage Goto” Alfa Guilietta Spider and “Team Turtle” Lotus Cortina ,with an Isuzu Bellett GT finishing just behind.
The second event was a race for under 2-liter Japanese cars built between 1965 and 1975. The next event was a race for P68 and P75 classes—“production” or essentially unmodified cars built up to 1968 and 1975 respectively. A superlatively tuned 2-liter Porsche 911S driven by Yoshibee Namikawa ran into the distance without ever looking fast. A Lotus Europa was 2nd followed by a Datsun 240Z, Bellet GT-R, Datsun 2000 Sports and a Skyline 2000 GT.
Next out were a small field of “foreign” cars including a Fiat X1/9 with Abarth mods, for the “Over Sea Run.” The “F” troop race followed, this being freely modified cars up to 1975, running on slicks. This was a cracker with desperate door handle to door handle dicing at the front between the Datsun 240ZG of Masami Yoshida and the Mazda 1200GX of Masami Kagiyama. Kagiyama-san is an old-time professional from a well-known motor racing family. Yoshida won by nothing with a wheel arch flare flapping in the breeze. Kagiyama was a valiant 2nd followed by another 240Z and a heavily modified Lotus Europa.
A second run for Japanese cars was next, this time nearly all Prince Skyline GTs from the national club. The following race was for S68 and S75 classes—that’s cars up to 1968 and 1975 with a reasonable level of modifications. The “S” stands for “sports.” A couple of Datsun 1800SSSs led early from a Porsche 911 2.7RS and a Mazda RX2 GT. The lead Datsun 1800SSS held on to win from the Porsche RS, a glorious Datsun Z432, another 1800SSS and then Hara with fastest lap at a blistering 1.06.46.
The final demonstration run was for the Ginetta Owners Club of Japan. The field consisted of about a dozen G4s of which only two were “original” 1964 models, with four or five G12s. The run looked a lot like a race with the two ’60s cars the quickest. The last race was part of a series for comparatively modern (late ’70s – early ’80s) Nissan Sunnys and Toyota Starlets.
by John Murn
