One of the highly successful, race-winning Ferrari 550 Maranello GTS cars which are being campaigned by Care Racing this year will soon be seen on race circuits throughout Japan.

A deal has been concluded with Hitotsuyama Racing, a well established, privately owned team, to enter at least one of the Ferraris in the 2004 Japanese GT Championship (JGTC). Subject to sponsorship, it is planned that the proposed entry will be extended to two cars.

Hitotsuyama Racing is owned by brothers Mikio Hitotsuyama and Yasushi Hitotsuyama of the Yamaichi Express company. The brothers have been an important part of the Japanese GT racing scene for 17 years and most recently the team has been running a McLaren F1 GTR and a BMW M3 GTR. Yamaichi Express is a freight company with 150 trucks and bond warehouses, mainly handling pulps for big paper companies and domestic parcels.

Six Ferrari 550 Maranellos, owned and managed by Frederic Dor’s Care Racing Development company, are currently being raced in Championships throughout the world.  All built and developed for racing by British-based Prodrive, two are being run by that same company at the 24 Hours of Le Mans and in the American Le Mans Series; three can be seen in the European FIA GT Championship, currently enjoying great success with three victories in three rounds; and one being operated by Luc Alphand Aventures/Solution F at Le Mans and in selected rounds of the FFSA French GT Championship.

The JGTC has grown to become the largest race series in Japan in terms of participants, with average entries of 40 cars attracting motor sports fans across the country (average spectator numbers in 2000 were 44,486 per event). The series has also been working hard to publicise itself in Asia and the West, with satellite TV coverage through Eurosport - Europe's largest sports channel providing visibility in 54 countries and reaching 92 million households with 230 million viewers. Additionally, ESPN Star Sports, which covers all Asian countries, providing visibility in 53 countries and reaching 85.52 million households, airs regular 30-minute JGTC programmes.