Photo: FRJC
D’station Racing will join Formula Regional Japanese Championship later this year, and is making an open call to find a driver to fill its car for free.
The team is based down the road from Fuji Speedway, and will make its FRJC debut at the circuit on September 24-26 after joining pre-season testing at the track back in March with 2010 Super Formula champion Joao Paulo de Oliveira at the wheel.
Rather than sign a paying driver, or place a seasoned professional in to aid its learning of the Dome F111/3 car, D’station has opted to put out a campaign to the general public inviting anyone with a competition license to apply to race at Fuji.
There are no restrictions on age, experience or manufacturer affiliation – a point made as D’station is best known for running Aston Martins in sportscar racing – as long as those who apply have the required license level to race in FRegional.
After the application deadline of August 20, the CVs of the drivers who have applied will be screened by the team and then three finalists will be contacted and invited for seat fits and simulator sessions at D’station’s factory on August 30/31.
In early September the three finalists will be invited back for a test day in which they will drive the Dome car, and after that shootout test a winner will be selected.
That driver will then get one or two test days later in the month for both them and the team to prepare for the Fuji race weekend, which is set to be round three of the season as the Sportsland SUGO round scheduled for this weekend has been postponed to a yet-to-be decided date.
D’station was created Satoshi Hoshino, who at 60 years old races for his own team in the World Endurance Championship’s GTE Am class in a Aston Martin Vantage AMR. As well as racing, the company operates resorts across Japan.
Hoshino has also spent the last two years sharing a GT3 version of the Vantage with 2018 Autosport BRDC Award winner Tom Gamble in the Asian Le Mans Series, and previously had Le Mans 24 Hours winner and former SF racer Seiji Ara as his regular team-mate.