Okayama International Circuit

Motorsport track in Japan

Aida, Japan's Remote Second Grand Prix

Built as a private retreat in remote Okayama Prefecture and first called TI Circuit Aida, this track hosted the Pacific Grand Prix twice, both won by Michael Schumacher.

Okayama International Circuit began as a private retreat for the wealthy and ended up on the Formula One calendar, a promotion few private hobbies ever earn. It lies in Mimasaka, in Okayama Prefecture, and opened in November 1990. Its first name, TI Circuit Aida, took its initials from Tanaka International, after Hajime Tanaka, who owned a golf club. The Grand Prix layout measures 3.703 kilometers, and visitors today can hire bikes and go karts.

In 1994 and 1995 it hosted the Pacific Grand Prix, which gave Japan two Formula One races in a single season. The first, in April 1994, went wrong for Ayrton Senna almost at once: he started from pole in his Williams and was eliminated in a collision at the start. Michael Schumacher won for Benetton by more than a minute from Gerhard Berger, while Senna's qualifying time that weekend remains the quickest lap ever recorded at the track. Schumacher clearly found the journey worth making. He returned in October 1995 and won again, ahead of the Williams pair of David Coulthard and Damon Hill, and he was world champion in both years.

Those were its 2 championship rounds. The race did not continue, chiefly because the circuit is so hard to reach, the one flaw no amount of investment can engineer away. Financial trouble followed all the same. The owner applied for civil rehabilitation in 2003, fresh backing kept the gates open, and on 1 January 2005 the track became Okayama International Circuit. The World Touring Car Championship visited from 2008 to 2010, and Super GT remains a regular guest. Since 2012 the circuit has belonged to the auto parts maker Aska Corporation. It also carries a sad memory: in 1999 the GT driver Shingo Tachi was killed in testing when a technical failure left him unable to slow for the first corner.

Every Grand Prix here

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