2006 Japan Le Mans Challenge
The 2006 Japan Le Mans Challenge season was the first ever season for the Japan Le Mans Challenge, a series created by SERO and run under sanctioning from the ACO to follow 24 Hours of Le Mans rules. It began May 14, 2006 and ended October 29, 2006 after 3 races.
Pre-season
In the buildup to the first season of JLMC, it was apparent from the start that unlike the Le Mans Series in Europe, JLMC would not start off with great success. A lack of commitment from major Japanese teams, especially those involved in Super GT, meant that the entry list for the season was small. An official pre-season test at Sportsland Sugo saw only 8 cars showing up. Even with this, more teams promised to eventually make it to the JLMC grid, including Team Goh, who had earned fame when they won the 2005 24 Hours of Le Mans with the conquering Audi R8.However, of the teams that did show up, few had quality machinery. The entire LMP2 class was small sportscars that did not actually fit LMP2 regulations. LMP1 was able to boast some machinery that fit LMP rules with a Zytek 05S while there was promise of a new Courage LC70 for Mugen Motorsports on the way as the season went on.
GT classes was made up of a large amount of machinery from Super GT, with an ex-Prodrive Ferrari 550-GTS and JLOC's Super GT Lamborghini Murcielago RG-1 joined by a privateer Mosler MT900R in GT1. GT2 was also only able to claim a few competitive entries, with some two Porsche 911 GT3s being mixed with a privateer cars that did not fully reach ACO GT2 specs.
These competitors allowed for the entry list of a mere 12 competitors for the first round at Sportsland Sugo.
Schedule
| Rnd | Race | Circuit | Date |
| 1 | Sportsland Sugo 1000 km | Sportsland SUGO | May 14 |
| 2 | Motegi 1000 km | Twin Ring Motegi | July 2 |
| 3 | Okayama 1000 km | Okayama International Circuit | October 29 |
Season results
Overall winner in bold.| Rnd | Circuit | LMP1 Winning Team | LMP2 Winning Team | GT1 Winning Team | GT2 Winning Team |
| Rnd | Circuit | LMP1 Winning Drivers | LMP2 Winning Drivers | GT1 Winning Drivers | GT2 Winning Drivers |
| 1 | Sugo |  #66 Jidosha Koubou Myst | #18 Aim Sports | #20 Hitotsuyama Racing | #27 Team Kawamura |
| 1 | Sugo | Takahiko Shimazawa Masaya Kono Kenji Takeya | Shinsuke Yamakazi Yuji Aso Masaru Tomizawa | Tatsuya Kataoka Naoki Hattori Eiichi Tajima | Koji Aoyama Shinichi Takagi Morio Nitta |
| 2 | Motegi | #66 Jidosha Koubou Myst | #4 MYZ | #20 Hitotsuyama Racing | #27 Team Kawamura |
| 2 | Motegi | Takahiki Shimazawa Hiroshi Ohta Kenji Takeya | Yuya Sakamoto Yoshihisa Namekata Tomonobu Fujii | Tatsuya Kataoka Naoki Hattori Eiichi Tajima | Koji Aoyama Shinichi Takagi Morio Nitta |
| 3 | Okayama | #16 Team Mugen | #4 MYZ | #88 JLOC | #930 Sunburst Rush |
| 3 | Okayama | Seiji Ara Haruki Kurosawa | Yuya Sakamoto Yoshihisa Namekata Tomonobu Fujii | Koji Yamanishi Yasatuka Hinoi Wada-Q | Yutaka Matsushima Takeru Inui Masashi Kakuichi |
Drivers' Championship
LMP1 standings
LMP2 standings
GT1 standings
GT2 standings
Teams' Championship
Points are awarded to finishers based on how many cars were entered in each class. For classes with a lower car count, the top five were awarded points in the order of 5-4-3-2-1. Classes with more entries were awarded points for the top eight in the order of 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1.Only the top finishing car in a team scores points towards the championship.