FIA WEC Big In Japan

Here’s a thought provoking fact – of the 27 cars on the grid for the 6 Hours of Fuji tomorrow no fewer than 14 have engines provided by Japanese OEMs; three from Toyota, four from Honda and a mighty seven from Nissan.

Contrast that with the 2009 Race in Okayama for the Asian Le Mans Series which featured 23 cars, three of which had engines badged or built by Japanese companied (one each from AIM (actually a Judd built V10), YGK and Mazda (AER)).

At that point in time the ACO had made it clear that their forward strategy was to directly engage with and attract the interest of the Japanese manufacturers.  On the evidence of numbers it would be difficult to argue that they have done anything other than succeed spectacularly.

And that’s not all of course – there’s a Mazda diesel arriving next season for LMP2; Toyota are looking to expand their LMP1 programme (budget permitting); there’s a South African sourced LMP2 engine programme with a Toyota badge on it; and there are increasing rumblings of a Honda GTE programme looming too.

The sun is indeed rising on endurance racing in Japan, and there seems to be a ready market here that is keen to embrace that renaissance.

Aside from Sebring this writer has never seen fans queuing overnight to gain entrance to a circuit  - that is certainly in part a mark of marque loyalty, but it is also a pointer that the successful efforts of several teams to bring significant Japanese driving talent to the grid here is paying dividends too.

The pre-event press conference yesterday featured all five Japanese drivers on the grid, three of whom have F1 pedigree with Kaz Nakajima in with a chance of an overall win with Toyota, Takuma Sato having the opportunity to blend his current Indycar fanbase with the clear enthusiasm here for sportscars, and Shinji Nakano in with a shot of a class win in LMP2.

The response from Japanese media was significantly good and the bonhomie with which the Japanese drivers conducted themselves at the press conference turned heads too.

The clear near fanaticism of the fanbase here (there were arguably more fans at the track for Friday’s free practice day than we saw during the race in Brazil!) and the obvious efforts of the teams and manufacturers to activate their investments in the sport have prospects for a rich seam for the WEC to mine here. If the powers that be can finally crack the code for a successful Asian Le Mans Series then there may be a new and very significant powerbase for our favourite part of the sport – and not before time.