# 1987 Suzuka 500 km

The Suzuka 500 km, was the opening round of the 1987 All Japan Sports Prototype Championship was held at the Suzuka Circuit, on 12 April, in front of a crowd of approximately 18,000.

## Report
### Entry

A total of 24 cars were entered for the event, across three classes ranging from Local Prototypes to Group C Prototypes.

### Qualifying

The pairing of Hideki Okada and Mike Thackwell took pole position for From A Racing, in their Porsche 962C ahead of the new partnership of Kazuyoshi Hoshino and Kenji Takahashi for Hoshino Racing, in their Nissan R87E, by just 0.42secs.

### Race

The race was held over 85 laps of the Suzuka circuit, a distance of 500 km (actual distance was 502.519 km). Hideki Okada and Mike Thackwell took the winner spoils for From A Racing, driving their Porsche 962C. The pair won in a time of 2hr 57:25.959mins., averaging a speed of 106.206 mph. Second place went to Kunimitsu Takahashi and Kenny Acheson in the Advan Alpha Nova’s Porsche 962C who finished just 2.775 seconds adrift. Also, the lead lap, was the third placed Toyota 87C of Geoff Lees and Alan Jones.

## Classification
### Race Result

Class Winners are in Bold text.
| Pos. | No. | Class | Driver | | Entrant | Car - Engine | Time, Laps | Reason Out |
| 1st | 27 | C | Hideki Okada | Mike Thackwell | From A Racing | Porsche 962C | 2hr 57:25.959 | |
| 2nd | 1 | C | Kunimitsu Takahashi | Kenny Acheson | Advan Alpha Nove | Porsche 962C | 2hr 57:28.734 | |
| 3rd | 36 | C | Geoff Lees | Alan Jones | Toyota Team TOM’s | Toyota 87C | 2hr 58:29.226 | |
| 4th | 16 | C | Kris Nissen | Volker Weidler | Leyton House Racing Team | Porsche 962C | 84 | |
| 5th | 202 | C | Takashi Yorino | David Kennedy | Mazdaspeed | Mazda 757 | 84 | |
| 6th | 201 | C | Yoshimi Katayama | Yojiro Terada | Mazdaspeed | Mazda 757 | 84 | |
| 7th | 2 | C | Chiyomi Totani | Naoki Nagasaka | Alpha Cubic Racing Team | Porsche 962C | 82 | |
| 8th | 32' | C | Aguri Suzuki | Masahiro Hasemi | Hasemi Motorsport | Nissan R86V | 80 | |
| 9th | 70 | B | Seiichi Sodeyama | Syuuji Fujii | Batsu Racing Team | MCS Guppy-Mazda | 75 | |
| 10th | 100 | C | Vern Schuppan | Keiichi Suzuki | Trust Racing Team | Porsche 962C | 75 | |
| 11th | 67 | A | Yoshifumi Yamazaki | Masaki Oohashi | | West-Mazda 87S | 74 | |
| 12th | 29 | A | Norihiro Yamazaki | Kenji Mizuno | | Oscar-Mazda SK85 | 74 | |
| 13th | 48 | A | Keiichi Mizutani | Motozou Fujikawa | | Oscar-Mazda SK85 | 73 | |
| 14th | 30 | A | Isao Nakahira | Kenji Kuroki | | West-Mazda 87S | 73 | |
| 15th | 6 | A | Hideki Uemura | Yoshiyuki Ogura | | West-Mazda 85S | 71 | |
| 16th | 38 | C | Eje Elgh | Ross Cheever | Dome Motorsport | Dome Motorsport-Toyota 87C | 71 | |
| 17th | 31 | A | Nobuyoshi Horil | Hajime Kajiwara | Horil Racing | West-Mazda 83S II | 71 | |
| 18th | 47 | A | Seiji Imoto | Tadao Yamauchi | Rev Racing | Oscar-Mazda SK85 | 70 | |
| 19th | 35 | A | Mitsutuka Hayakawa | Masatoshi Yamaguchi | | West-Mazda 83S II | 70 | |
| 20th | 7 | C | Osamu Nakako | Maurizio Sandro Sala | Best House Racing Team | LM-Toyota 07 | 63 | |
| DNF | 50 | C | Syuuroku Saski | Taku Akaike | SARD | SARD-Toyota MC87S | 52 | Driveshaft |
| DNF | 8 | C | Takao Wada | Anders Olofsson | Person’s Racing Team | Nissan R86V | 31 | Oil Leak |
| DNF | 23 | C | Kazuyoshi Hoshino | Kenji Takahashi | Hoshino Racing | Nissan R87E | 17 | Drivesharft |
| DNF | 9 | A | Souichirou Tanaka | Hiroaki Ishii | Katayama Racing | Oscar-Mazda SK85 | 15 | Retire |
| DNS | 37 | C | Geoff Lees | Masanori Sekiya | Toyota Team TOM’s | TOM’s-Toyota 87C | | Withdrawn |