DHL Global Forwarding has provided FIA world touring and endurance racing cars with multimodal support for races in Japan.
The support was provided for the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) race at Fuji International Speedway and World Touring Car Cup (WTCR) at the Suzuka Circuit.
To support the races, DHL is managing all transportation, customs clearance and ground handling for 36 race cars, spare parts and ancillary equipment covering everything from tyres to engines.
Prior to the WEC race at Mount Fuji, DHL shipped cargo via ocean and airfreight from the UK and Germany to Tokyo before delivering the cars and equipment to the race circuits via road.
The 6 Hours of Fuji WEC race took place on 14 October and was won by the Toyota Gazoo Racing team consisting of Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez in a Toyota TS050 Hybrid.
For the WTCR Race of Japan, which will be held from 26-28 October and consist of three races totalling 42 laps, a second set of vehicles will arrive via ocean freight direct from the previous outing in Wuhan, China.
DHL Global Forwarding president and representative director for Japan, and CEO for North Asia and South Pacific, Charles Kaufmann says: “As with all of the motorsports events we support around the world, our goal remains the same: deliver the race’s critical ingredients with speed and agility, while also ensuring the utmost safety and regulatory compliance of these precious cargos.
“Given the relatively tight scheduling between each championship’s events, we’ve also optimised our delivery patterns to ensure the cars move swiftly from their prior engagements to Japan before continuing on their global tours.”
Immediately after each race, DHL’s teams load all goods to transport them from the circuit to the port and clear customs within 72 hours before sending them to their next outings in Shanghai for WEC and Macau for WTCR.