Photo: Formual Regional Japanese Championship
Sena Sakaguchi moved into the Formula Regional Japanese Championship points lead with a total domination of round four at Twin Ring Motegi.
The Sutekina Racing Team driver set the pace in wet qualifying, and was untouchable in both races against an eight-car grid of limited quality.
TOM’S protege Yuga Furutani was a very distant second place to Sakaguchi in both races, the latter of which came after he stalled on the grid due to the track being damp.
Super Formula Lights regular Ai Miura was the only other non-gentleman driver in either race, and she rounded out the race one podium some 23s behind Sakaguchi. In race two she span early on and repairs proved futile so she went to the pits to retire.
The gentleman class winner therefore made the podium, with Masayuki Ueda picking up the honours while his rivals Siyuji and Nobuhiro Imada got lapped by Sakaguchi. Fourth place in race one though meant Imada is now up to fourth in the overall standings.
There are only three drivers in title contention entering the final two rounds, with Sakaguchi leading Furutani by 24 points and the absent Tomoki Takahashi by 36 points.
Results
Race 1 (14 laps)
1 Sena Sakaguchi Sutekina Racing Team 25m24.981s
2 Yuga Furutani TOM’S +9.533s
3 Ai Miura Super License +23.299s
4 Nobuhiro Imada Eagle Sports +34.752s
5 Masaru Miura CMS +35.665s
6 DRAGON B-MAX Racing +42.994s
7 Masayuki Ueda Rn-sports +43.427s
8 Syuji B-MAX Racing +1m30.954s
Pole: Sakaguchi, 1m59.692s
Fastest lap: Sakaguchi, 1m48.067s
Race 2 (17 laps)
1 Sakaguchi 31m07.455s
2 Furutani +7.906s
3 Ueda +1m18.251s
4 Syuji +1 lap
5 Imada +1 lap
Ret M Miura
Ret A Miura
Ret DRAGON
P: Sakaguchi, 1m59.623s
FL: Sakaguchi, 1m47.881s
Championship standings
1 Sakaguchi 175 2 Furutani 151 3 Tomoki Takahashi 139 4 Imada 71 5 Ueda 65 6 DRAGON 60 7 Yuki Nemoto 58 8 Yu Kanamaru 45 9 Takuro Shinohara 43 10 Syuji 35