YOMIURI ASIA CHALLENGE CUP / JAPAN SPORTS CAR FUJI 300 KILOMETRE RACE, 1968 Rare, Original Japanese motorsport event poster (B2 / approx. 51 × 73 cm), with original double-sided B5 companion flyer Colour-printed poster on paper, unrestored Q65

A vivid survivor from the first great age of Fuji Speedway: the original Japanese advertising poster for the 10th Japan Sports Car Fuji 300 Kilometre Race, staged at Fuji Speedway on 23–24 March 1968 under the Yomiuri Asia Challenge Cup banner. JAF’s official results confirm the dates and venue; the sports-car result pages record wet conditions and a shortened 300 km race, while the event drew a reported 34,000 spectators.

This paper belongs squarely to Fuji’s romantic banked era, though the included flyer adds an important nuance: it specifies the 4.3 km left-turn course for this meeting. Toyota’s official GAZOO history notes that early Fuji combined the original 6 km layout with 30-degree banking and a 4.3 km shortcut course, run left-handed when the banking was bypassed. In other words, this is still very much banked-era Fuji material, but with unusually specific period documentation of the exact configuration used for the race.

Why the Toyota 2000GT matters

For Toyota collectors, the key point is stronger in text than in pure visual attribution: both the poster and the companion flyer explicitly advertise the Toyota 2000GT among the featured Japanese challengers. That alone gives the piece unusual weight, because the 2000GT is one of the defining blue-chip cars of postwar Japanese motoring. Toyota’s own museum records that the model was developed with Yamaha, established its credentials by setting three world records and 13 international records in 1966, and remained a low-volume halo car, with production ending in 1970 after 337 examples were sold. Toyota also describes the 2000GT as the car that effectively launched Toyota’s circuit-racing history at Fuji in 1966.

That is what makes this poster especially compelling: not simply that it is a handsome period race sheet, but that it places the Toyota 2000GT inside the charged graphic language of late-1960s Fuji competition. Even where period race art is stylised, the collector significance remains unmistakable.

Poster design

Visually, the sheet is all velocity: explosive orange brushwork, oversized black title typography, and a tightly compressed pack of international and domestic sports-racers rushing toward the viewer. The central white-and-blue GT coupe will be the emotional focal point for car collectors, while the surrounding open sports-racers and high-wing Group 7-style machine give the composition the full drama of 1960s Fuji. It is exactly the kind of graphic motorsport design that makes Japanese event paper so desirable when compared with more literal Western race advertising of the same period.

Included companion flyer (B5, double-sided)

Also included is the original double-sided B5 flyer for the same event, a highly desirable survival in its own right. The front repeats the race scene in simplified monochrome with blue-and-black typography and preserves the practical event details: “JAF Japanese Championship title race,” “Fuji Speedway,” “4.3 km left-turn course,” GT / sports car / prototype car / two-seat racing car categories, 70 laps / 300 km, and rolling-start (Indy style) format.

The reverse is even more documentary. It carries entrant tables for the “Oriental Zone” challengers and the leading Japanese-side challengers, together with an access map, advance ticket outlets, ticketing notes, a rain-or-shine notice, and a period Coca-Cola advertising strip. JAF’s official SPR and sports-car results confirm that the flyer’s promoted international names — including J. MacDonald, L. Hansen, and A. Poon — did indeed run at the meeting. Just as interestingly, the flyer preserves a pre-race snapshot of expected challengers and pairings that does not always perfectly match the final classified results, which gives it real historical value beyond mere promotion.

In collecting terms, that matters. The poster delivers spectacle; the flyer supplies the ground-level documentary detail. Together they form a far fuller surviving record of the event than the poster alone.

Text and translation notes

Key printed Japanese information includes:

• 読売アジア・チャレンジカップ争奪 — “Competing for the Yomiuri Asia Challenge Cup”
• 日本スポーツカー富士300キロレース大会 — “Japan Sports Car Fuji 300 Kilometre Race”
• 東洋ゾーンGP覇者来たる!! — “Oriental Zone GP champions are coming!!”
• 決勝 3月24日(日) / 予選 3月23日(土) — “Final race: Sunday, 24 March / Qualifying: Saturday, 23 March”
• 富士スピードウェイ 4.3km レフトターンコース — “Fuji Speedway, 4.3 km left-turn course”
• 入場券好評発売中 / 雨天開催 — “Tickets now on sale / held rain or shine”

The flyer’s entry list is especially rich in period names, ranging from Lotus 30, Lotus 23B, Porsche Carrera 6, Ford Cobra Daytona, and Del RSB, to Mazda Cosmo, Fairlady 2000, Toyota 2000GT, Toyota Sports 800, Nissan Silvia, and Honda S800.

Provenance

Issued folded, as original Japanese event paper of the period. Subsequently framed and kept for decades in a private Kyoto collection, where it served as a cornerstone of that collection.

Condition

Poster: excellent, unrestored original paper, retaining the original issued fold lines. The essential virtue is presentation: the colour remains bold, the title typography retains excellent force, and the poster has strong wall presence.

Flyer: unrestored, double-sided. As with the poster, the great appeal lies in survival, completeness, and direct period association with the main sheet.

Overall, this is an unusually satisfying motorsport offering: not just a dramatic 1968 Fuji B2 poster, but a poster-and-flyer pairing that speaks directly to the rise of Japan’s modern competition culture — and, above all, to the era of the Toyota 2000GT.