Fuji Speedway

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Fuji Speedway in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan, is a former Formula One race track standing in the foothills of the majestic Mount Fuji and which was acquired by Toyota Motor Corporation in 2000.

The track was designed to be as a 4 kilometres (2 1/2 mile) high-banked super-speedway, but there was not enough money to complete the project and only one of the bankings was ever designed. Converted to a road course, the circuit opened in December of 1965 and proved to be somewhat dangerous with the banked turn regularly resulting in major accidents. A new part of track was built to counteract the problem, and the resultant 4.359 km (2.7 mi) course proved more successful. The speedway brought the first Formula 1 race to Japan at the end of the 1976 season. The race had a dramatic World Championship battle between James Hunt and Niki Lauda, and in awful rainy conditions, Hunt earned enough points to win the title. Mario Andretti won the race, with Lauda withdrawing due to the dangerous conditions.

There was less celebration after the second race in 1977 after Gilles Villeneuve was involved in a crash that killed two people on the side of the track. It would be the second and last time the Fuji circuit would host a F1 race and when Japan earned another race on the F1 schedule 10 years later, it went to Suzuka instead.

Fuji remained a popular sports car championship venue and was often used for national races. Speeds continued to be very high, and two chicanes were added to the track, one just past the first hairpin corner, the second at the entry to the very long, very fast final turn. But even with these changes the main feature of the track remained its 1.3km long straightaway, one of the longest in all of motorsports.

The long pit straight also has also been utilised for drag racing. NHRA exhibitions were run in 1989, and in 1993 Shirley Muldowney ran a 5.30 on the quarter-mile strip at Fuji. Local drag races are common on the circuit.

The track continues to be used for Japanese national races, but plans to host a CART event in 1991 was abandoned and it was not until the autumn of 2000 that the track was bought by Toyota, as part of its motor racing plans for the future.

In 2003 the circuit was closed down to accommodate a major reprofiling of the track, using a new design from Hermann Tilke. The track was reopened on 10 April, 2005. Toyota has now won its bid to host a Grand Prix event, replacing the Suzuka Circuit as host to the Japanese Grand Prix in the 2007 Formula One season.

The Fuji circuit is well known to fans of the game Pole Position, as cars raced on the circuit in the popular coin-op. Also featuring Fuji is Gran Turismo 4, where the circuit is available in its current (with or without the last chicane), 1974-85 and 1986-92 layouts.

Fuji is also featured in TOCA Race Driver (Also known as DTM Race Driver in Germany and V8 Supercars in Australia) in its 1993-2004 layout. The circuit was neither featured in TOCA Race Driver 2 nor in TOCA Race Driver 3.

F1 will be returning to Fuji Speedway in 2007, replacing Suzuka as venue for the Japanese GP.[1]

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