01.04.2004 HITOTSUYAMA RACING'S PRODRIVE BUILT FERRARI 550 MARANELLO GEARS UP FOR THE JGTC SEASON AS TWO TEAMS PLAN TO RUN THE LAMBORGHINI MURCIELAGO R-GT

An all-new Ferrari 550 Maranello, prepared by British-based Prodrive, was delivered during February to Hitotsuyama Racing in Japan and is now undergoing final preparations for this season's Japanese GT Championship after a successful test at Suzuka last month.

The car is essentially the same as the one that raced to major success worldwide last year, a year that included a GTS win at the Le Mans 24 Hours and US Petit Le Mans as well as victory in the FIA GT Championship, has had to be tailored to meet with the JGTC regulations.

A host of minor changes include a new rear wing pillar to allow for a lower rear wing, steel brakes, and a resized air restrictor. Japanese sportscar regulars Hidetoshi Mitsusada and Mikio Hitotsuyama will drive the Ferrari.

Two Lamborghini Murcielago R-GTs will also be competing in the JGTC this season. Team JLOC and Amprex Motorsport will both run the new Italian sportscar.

Team JLOC, which is an acronym for the Japan Lamborghini Owners Club, was formed at the beginning of the nineties, and they have been a popular fixture in the JGTC since the series kicked off ten years ago. The enthusiastic team, which has dedicated itself to bringing the famous Italian name onto the Japanese tracks, first raced a self-prepared Countach in 1993, the first year of the JGTC.

The club was then able to persuade the factory to specially built them a race car, the Diablo Jota which was used during the 1995 and 1996 seasons. For 1997 they obtained a Diablo GTR, which for 1998 evolved into the Diablo GT1 and took the teams best result to date, a podium at Suzuka in the hands of Naohiro Furuya, Tsuyoshi Takahashi and Hisashi Wada.

However, the longer than expected development schedule of the Murcielago R-GT, first seen publicly at last September's Frankfurt Motor Show, means that neither Team JLOC, or the other outfit planning to run the car, Amprex Motorsport, will be present at the opening round at the TI Circuit Aida.

Ferrari and Lamborghini will face formidable opposition in the GT500 class. Defending champions Nissan have ditched the title winning Skyline GT-R racers in favour of a machine based around the new 350Z, which is known in Japan as the Fairlady Z. The new Nissan Z, which incorporates technology from the Skyline, set stunning times during March's JGTC official tests at Suzuka. The other tough opposition is made up of factory backed efforts Toyota and Honda which use racers based on the Supra and NSX respectively.

The seven round Japanese GT Championship kicks off at the TI Circuit Aida on 4th April. Round 2 at the end of May is held at the Sportland-Sugo circuit, before the third round in June has the series travelling overseas to the Malaysian F1 circuit at Sepang. The JGTC then takes in races at the Tokachi Speedway, the Twin Ring Motegi and Autopolis before it finishes on 21st November at Suzuka, the traditional home of the Japanese Grand Prix.