Round 10, Sunday, September 27th
With Raul Boesel having already won the Drivers' Championship, it might have been thought that the Fuji 1000 kms would be robbed of much of its excitement. But not a bit of it. As this video depicts, there was action a-plenty as the new champion's crown was attempted to be tilted by the opposition he had been faced with all season. For all that, the circuit is not one, which is universally popular. But it lacked nothing in atmosphere as the majestic Mount Fuji towers the track. Boesel shared the Silk Cut Jaguar with Johnny Dumfries on this occasion, but outgoing champion Derek Bell was certain to put up a good show as always - having signed for Schuppan/Rothmans to drive the Porsche 962 after the full factory effort was withdrawn earlier in the year. The second Tom Walkinshaw Big Cat Jag was driven by Jan Lammers and John Watson, with Mauro Baldi and Mike Thackwell combined for BLR/Matsuda in another Porsche 962 as also favoured by hard-trying Jochen Mass and Oscar Laurrari.
The cameramen are made to work hard to keep up with the furious pace of the finest cars in the world driven by the best men in the sport. Pit work, too, is not overlooked, with the brief halts sometimes turning into more lengthy stops as the mechanics wrestle to repair damage or failed components.
It all adds up to a brilliant record of what was to prove to be the final round of the 1987 World Sportscar Championship, since the Sendai round was cancelled soon after this event.