Another day, another event at Fuji Speedway. But this one was slightly different. It’s not a Super GT race nor is it a massive meet of Liberty Walk’s tuned cars. Instead, this is the Super Car Race. Not an original name, but direct. It’s the result of a gap in Japanese motorsports for the casual exotic owner wanting to compete in racing with their toys on a track.
The SCR is approved by the Japan Automobile Federation, Japan’s version of the FIA. Everything is a free-for-all, meaning the grid can be comprised of anything other than single-seater Formula cars. SCR has been going on for since 2014 but 2017 was the first year the CarGuy supercar club (Yes, that is their name; again with the directness) has joined in on the fun.
It’s only in the early stages of establishing this new series, and that isn’t easy, but the team behind it are a formidable one.
You’ll be familiar with the CarGuy group, or at least some of the things they’ve been up to with their cars. The founder of the group, Takeshi Kimura, was the guy who took his Ferrari F40 up a ski slope as well as taking camping a few years back.
The CarGuy group are firm believers of bringing everyone who loves cars together. It doesn’t matter if your thing is supercars, racing cars, tuned cars, muscle cars, or off-roaders—these folks want to share their experiences with everyone.
Kimura-san owns quite a few supercars and is familiar with the more “exclusive” car clubs that comes with owning those sorts of cars. He doesn’t want CarGuy to be one of those snobbish clubs so everything they do is open to the public. Everyone is encouraged to come to all their events.
As a result, CarGuy have quite a following on social media and are starting to gain international recognition. Producing several car-related media like the collaboration video with Red Bull for the F40 in the snow video was part of that.
Kimura-san himself competes in Lamborghini’s Asia Super Trofeo series, which will make sense as you’ll see in the photos most of the cars competing in the SCR are part of Lamborghini’s customer race series.
Basically, think of it as an excuse for these rich guys to race each other with their track toys, for fun. But rather than making it exclusive and off limits, anyone can join in and everyone was welcome to watch. Unlike other races and track days, they were fine with people popping into the pits to have a closer look at the cars too.
The first round of the CarGuy SCR was held in April. There weren’t very many entrants, as to be expected from something new and upcoming like this, but it’s obvious some people saw the potential in this as the second round of the year had significantly more cars and spectators.
It helped that on the Sunday when the fourth round of the SCR was held the Fuji Champion Race Series was also happening. It’s basically where several different race series are held throughout the same day. The SCR was the last race scheduled, so it would’ve been just rude not to watch the other races while we waited.
We arrived halfway through the Inter-Proto Series, a one-make series using a car called the “Kuruma” which translates to, surprise surprise, “car.”
Unimaginative name aside, the cars are powered by a 340 horsepower 4.0-liter V6 mated to a six-speed sequential gearbox. The Car cars sounded incredible as they went around Fuji in the rain.
After that it was time for the Hatchback Race, or the “Fuji Champion Race N1500/N1400/N1000/Demio/Audi A1 Fun Cup”, to use its full name. This was one of the most exciting races I had ever seen. It was 20-odd front-wheel drive hatchbacks just battling it out relentlessly. There was something utterly wonderful seeing old Starlets and Yarises (Yari?) overtaking each other on the main straight of Fuji, while the Mazda Demios and Audi A1s tried to keep up.
With those races amping up the excitement of the few spectators who bothered to stay at this point in the day, it was time for the SCR to begin. While the proper race cars warmed up, the Aston Martin Vulcan and McLaren P1 were sent out to keep the viewers happy.
Owners of these things are what SCR is hoping to attract. Cars like the Vulcan, Ferrari FXXK, and McLaren P1 GTR, which can’t be entered in other race series, are ideal to enter in the SCR due to the different categories offered ranging from Premium, GT3, GT4, N1, Cup1, and Cup2.
After two quick laps and deafening the remainder of the crowd with its V12 engine, the Vulcan went back into the pits to prepare for its journey back home. Once that was done it was time for the 50-minute SCR race to begin.
The 12-car starting grid showed the variety of cars involved so far. Up at the front were the Cup and GT3 cars were positioned. In the middle were the remainder of the GT cars and the N1 class cars were at the back. The order was arranged by the lap times from the previous round held the day before.
It was quite an intense race for the cars at the front of the grid, they were evenly matched and with only 50 minutes of race time it was an all-or-nothing strategy for most. It was a relatively clean race considering the weather only the No. 27 Toyota 86 spun off the track, while the 458 Challenge car was forced to retire due to problems with the transmission.
The overall winner was No. 38 Hojust Huracan with the No. 24 Porsche GT3 Cup winning the Cup 1 class and the No. 19 Audi RS3 LMS winning the GT4/N1 class.
The difference between the first two rounds and this round was quite significant, not just in terms of the cars that were present but also the number of spectators.
Sure, the Fuji Race Series helped add numbers but the multiple posts on the various CarGuy social media pages helped stir up interest, particularly with the Vulcan and P1 demo runs. Takeuchi hopes SCR will grow in the future and is even considering adding a round at Suzuka Circuit.
It’ll be interesting to see how the CarGuy and SCR partnership will grow in the future and what other cars will sign up for this race series. It’s only the early years, but there’s potential for this series, especially if they add in more track-only cars like the Vulcan and throw in some road cars into the mix too.