For series creator Kazunori Yamauchi, this isn’t just a marketing exercise, he sees it as laying the foundation for the next hundred years of motorsport. What’s more, with motorsport as a hobby second only to Fabergé Egg juggling in terms of expense, he sees GT Sport as a way for people from more modest backgrounds to compete.

“Motorsport has a long history now, but for a long time it was a sport that was really done by the higher social classes, people with money,” Yamauchi explained to TG.

“It’s only in the 1970s where its doors opened to the general public and just placing stickers on a car brought in huge commercial money. But that was a very special era for motorsport. Around the 90s is where that door started closing again.”

“I grew up in that era where the doors were open to everyone and I discovered the fun of motorsport in that way. I have this fear that unless we do something about it now, motorsports won’t be able to exist in popular culture anymore and that’s something that concerns the automotive industry as well. That’s why they’ve been so willing to help us and support the championships and everything we do.”