Twin Ring Motegi Circuit (JAPAN)
Rd. 9, 15 - 16 October 2011
| Width: 12 - 15m |
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| Length: 4,801.379m |
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Longest Straight: 762m
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| Course Record |
| GT500 |
1'44.095 |
Tatsuya Kataoka / Mobil 1 SC |
(2006-09-09 / 2006 Round7 ) |
| GT300 |
1'53.147 |
Masataka Yanagida / C-WEST DAISHIN ADVAN Z |
(2004-09-04 / 2004 Round5 ) |
Circuit Profile
Located in the town of Motegi in the Eastern Tochigi prefecture, the Twin Ring Motegi race circuit was built by Honda and opened its doors in 1997. Set in the hills that form part of the Hakko mountain chain, the circuit is essentially two race tracks in one location. The name was coined as a combination of the English word “twin” and the German word “ring” to indicate the two race tracks – the American-styled oval Super Speedway course and the European-style road course.
The oval Super Speedway course is the only one of its kind in Japan. With its low-banked, 1.549-mile-long egg-shaped course, the circuit's turns 3 and 4 is tighter than turns 1 and 2. The American CART series held its inaugural race at the Twin Ring Motegi circuit in 1998, which was won by Mexican driver, Adrian Fernandez. The series continued racing at Motegi until 2002. Since 2003, with the presence of Honda in the Indy Racing League or IRL, the circuit has become a fixture on the IRL schedule. The circuit gained additional prominence when Danica Patrick became the first woman to win an Indy car race at Motegi in 2008.
The Twin Ring Motegi's road course meanwhile measures 4.8 kilometres long and is unique in that it shares the same pit building and grandstand as the oval track but is otherwise an entirely different circuit. Featuring the standard European-circuit layout with the standard stop-start straight and hairpin style. It is also quite a flat circuit with only a slight elevation towards the hairpin.
The track is also considerably busy hosting the major Japanese championships including the Super GT and Super Taikyu Endurance Series in addition to the Formula Nippon and All Japan Formula 3 Championships as well as motorcycle race events like the MotoGP and All-Japan road race championship.