Tuesday, 3 May 1966. The sun was shining above the peak of Mount Fuji, and race day began as peacefully and innocently as one could have hoped for.
In an instant, everyone at the track would see the worst possible fear realized at just past 9 AM, in the second lap of the 20-lap touring car support race that kicked off the preliminary action.
Keiichi Nagai, a university student and member of the Isuzu Sports Car Club, was driving his Isuzu Bellett 1600GT coupé, when he lost control of his vehicle in a strong crosswind, and crashed through the guardrail at the treacherous 30-degree banked right-hander. Nagai’s car launched 98 metres through the air before crashing 30 metres to the ground below. Nagai suffered full-body bruising, fractures to his upper spine, arms, shoulders, and legs, but the official cause of his death was ruled to be asphyxiation. He was just 24 years old.
His was the first, and unfortunately, far from the last fatal crash at the infamous Daiichi Corner. The accident came just nine months after the much-beloved Tojiro Ukiya, a 23-year-old rising star from the Toyota Motorsports Club, was killed in a private test at Suzuka Circuit.
Kenjiro Tanaka, a former speedway motorcycle racer, would recall seeing the track and the 30-degree banked corner for the first time before the race: “When the track was first completed, I asked the course superintendent if he had driven stakes into the foundation, and he replied, ‘No, I hadn’t,’ and I thought to myself, ‘This is not going to work.’”
Sukehiro Suda won the race in his Prince Skyline 2000GT. Tanaka finished third.
The next support race was the GT race, won by the #20 Datsun Fairlady S of Kunimitsu Takahashi. Takahashi was Japan’s first World Grand Prix motorcycle race winner, but after injuries sustained in a near-fatal crash in the 1962 Isle of Man Tourist Trophy, Takahashi wasn’t able to regain his prior form. In 1964, he switched to 4-wheel-racing, one of many former Japanese motorcycle racers to do so.
Nagai’s fatal crash delayed the start of the main event by over an hour. Before the race, there were talks of implementing a speed limit through the banked corner, or a gentleman’s agreement not to overtake through that section of the track. I wasn’t able to find if either proposal went through in the end.
Finally, at 2:35 PM, under clear skies and dry weather, and in front of 95,000 spectators that filled the grandstands and the hillsides of Fuji International Speedway – the feature race of the 3rd Japan Grand Prix Car Race commenced.
The grid lined up in alternating rows of four and three. Qualifying may have generated a jumbled grid order, but the order was quickly sorted out at the end of the first lap. Ikuzawa in the yellow #8 Prince R380 led the opening lap, followed by teammate Sunako in the red #11 Prince. Taki had made a great start in the white #9 Porsche, going from 12th to 3rd. Tamura in the silver #17 Toyota had a good initial getaway, but settled to 4th over the line, just ahead of the #21 Shelby of Sakai – up 11 places from 16th and last on the grid. On Lap 2, the two leading Prince R380s swapped positions, as Sunako passed Ikuzawa to take the lead of the race.
Suffering from a gearbox issue that left him unable to match Sunako’s pace, Ikuzawa began defending aggressively from the Porsche of Taki, who finally made his way through to 2nd on Lap 7.
Taki began chasing down Sunako, and just as the two leaders were coming down the frontstretch to start Lap 24, Taki would slingshot his way past Sunako for the race lead.
Per the JAF official records of the 1966 Japan Grand Prix, the best lap of the race was a 2’05.02 from Sunako. But according to reports from auto sport Magazine, Taki had set a best lap of 2’03.25, indicating that the Porsche 906 was indeed the fastest car on track. Both cars were level on straight-line speed, but the Porsche was far superior through the corners.
However, while Prince didn’t have the fastest car, they had a decided edge in strategy and preparation as a multi-car factory operation, versus Taki’s single-car privateer effort.
Indeed, the turning point of the race came when the leaders came into the pits for fuel. Taki pitted first, on Lap 32. His crew refuelled using a polyethylene tank, which took about 50 seconds to complete, and proved costly: Taki came out in 3rd place, behind not only race leader Sunako, but his teammate Ikuzawa.
On Lap 36, Sunako came into the pits for his fuel stop. Prince had at their disposal a gravity-fed fuel rig, and it took only 15 seconds to refuel the car. With their quick work, Sunako never lost the lead of the race as he drove away from the pits.
The running order was Sunako in 1st, Ikuzawa in 2nd, just ahead of Taki in 3rd. Sakai was 4th in his Shelby, ahead of Tatsu Yokoyama’s Prince in 5th, and the Toyota of Hosoya in 6th.
The silver Toyota 2000GT of Tamura retired just six laps into the race, when a stray piece of newspaper was caught in the radiator and caused it to overheat. A fuel system failure knocked the underdog pole winner Kitano and his experimental Datsun Fairlady twin-cam special out after 36 laps.
Then, one after another, several podium contenders dropped out in rapid succession.
Super GT World 