Photo: FRJC
Toyota junior Yuki Sano ended the Formula Regional Japanese Championship season with two wins at Fuji Speedway.
Kazuhisa Urabe just came out on top of qualifying for race one, setting a 1m38.414s to beat Toyota stablemate Sano by 0.058 seconds. The pair had debuted in the previous round at Fuji, and also been the pace-setters.
The returning Yugo Iwasawa (Delightworks Racing) was 0.131s behind in third, and TOM’S driver Yoshiaki Nakamura was 0.197s back in fourth. Champion Michael Sauter was half a second off the pace in sixth.
Sano lowered the pace to 1m37.709s in Q2, leading Urabe by 0.19s. Sauter trailed by 0.411s in third, and Nakamura was fourth, 0.721s off pole.
Uraber was immediately jumped off the line by Sano at the start of race one, then ran slightly into the dirt at turn one and had to settle for second as Iwasawa settled into third on his first FRJC outing since 2023.
Sano put almost a second between himself and Urabe on the opening lap, was two seconds clear after five laps and three seconds ahead after eight.
Although some drivers remained close to each other behind, there was no overtaking until lap seven when “Yuki” passed Yorikatsu Tsujiko for 12th. Tsujiko got back past on the next lap.
Sauter passed Nakamura and Yuta Fujiwara on lap one then had Nakamura in his mirrors for the rest of the race, with attempts to reclaim fourth coming at turn one on laps 11 and 12.
On the 15th and final lap he hassled Sauter at almost every corner but could not break his defences, as up front Sano won by 5.04s.
Sauter made a slow start to race two and lost third to Nakamura, as Sano streaked away into a 0.96s lead. The slipstream down the long pit straight enabled Sauter to regain third into turn one on lap two, and Iwasawa went past Fujiwara for fifth.
Iwasawa started lap four side-by-side with Nakamura, and passed him on the inside into turn one. Fujiwara did something similar to Nakamura on lap 10, the pair split by 0.018s as they crossed the line and with Nakamura getting ahead on the outside as they slowed down for the first corner.
Sano triumphed by 3.694s, Sauter held off two laps of intense pressure from Iwasawa at the end for third, Nakamura almost lost another position to Jesse Lacey in a slipstreaming battle to the chequered flag and Zhongwei Wang won an exciting race-long battle for ninth that involved trading places with Tsujiko almost every lap.
Results round-up
Race 1 (15 laps)
1 Yuki Sano TGR-DC RS 24m53.084s
2 Kazuhisa Urabe TGR-DC RS +5.040s
3 Yugo Iwasawa Delightworks Racing +11.167s
4 Michael Sauter Birth Racing Project +16.896s
5 Yoshiaki Nakamura TOM’S +17.183s
6 Yuta Fujiwara Rn-sports +18.930s
7 Jesse Lacey Bionic Jack Racing +19.518s
8 Sebastian Manson Birth Racing Project +33.426s
9 Zhongwei Wang Sky Motorsports +36.635s
10 Anna Inotsume Helm Motorsports +
Pole:
Fastest lap: Sano, 1m39.208s
Race 2 (15 laps)
1 Sano 24m52.710s
2 Urabe +3.694s
3 Sauter +11.722s
4 Iwasawa +12.087s
5 Fujiwara +15.844s
6 Nakamura +19.956s
7 Lacey +19.990s
8 Manson +39.930s
9 Wang +53.862s
10 Inotsume +53.994s
P: Sano, 1m37.709s
FL: Sano, 1m39.133s
Championship standings
1 Sauter 236 2 Manson 155 3 Nakamura 146 4 Lacey 140 5 Sano 100 6 Fuma Horio 98 7 Inotsume 98 8 Jiei Okuzumi 61 9 Urabe 51 10 “Yugo” 43