Photo: FRJC
Kiyoshi Umegaki took the Formula Regional Japanese Championship lead by winning twice at Sportsland Sugo last weekend.
Ponos Racing’s Kento Omiya was quickest in practice, leading TOM’S title contenders Tokiya Suzuki and Umegaki by 0.1 and 0.189 seconds respectively.
Erstwhile points leader Suzuki topped qualifying, beating Umegaki to race one pole by 0.189s and race three pole by 0.139s (with his second-best laptime) in Q1. In Q2 he became the only driver to break into the 1m16s, with Umegaki 0.272s behind and securing second by just 0.004s over Omiya.
B-MAX Racing’s Zhanbin Jia qualified fourth for all three races, and “Yugo” was a non-qualifier due to being over 7.7s off the pace but still raced.
Suzuki built a lead so quickly in race one that he was able to spend a considerable portion of the first two laps weaving to warm his tyres.
Omiya passed Umegaki, and on lap four the trio bunched up as Yu Oda got beached in a gravel trap and the safety car appeared.
Suzuki weaved again after racing resumed on lap seven, and Omiya went deep at turn one and almost conceded second.
The next moment of drama was on lap 11, as Yutaka Toriba went slightly off at turn one and dropped from fifth to seventh before spinning at turn three as he tried reclaiming a position. He spun again on the penultimate lap.
Suzuki won by 7.62s, while Umegaki stuck with Omiya who had a slight off on lap 15 but was still able to finish the 22-lap race 0.563s ahead.
Suzuki was late to launch in race two, and Umegaki was alongside him on the inside before the opening corner. He got fully ahead by turn two.
Umegaki had to defend down the pit straight as lap two began, and Suzuki had a look down the inside at turn one. He could not do the same next time by due to Omiya being close behind, and he then made a mistake at turn two.
The top two began gapping Omiya on lap seven, and Suzuki remained in Umegaki’s slipstream. On lap 11 he dived past at Horseback corner, but went too deep and Umegaki immediately reclaimed the lead.
Umegaki was defensive as lap 12 began, and into Horseback on lap 16 but locked up. Suzuki made a failed turn one lunge on lap 18, and did not attack again.
Omiya finished 3.6s behind, and Jia soaked up pressure from Toriba before he had to defend from Oda late on.
Umegaki earned his fifth win and the points lead in race three. Suzuki had a big gap on the formation lap so his tyres had cooled by the time the other drivers lined up for the start, and with an awful start he dropped behind Umegaki and Omiya.
They ran as a trio until Umegaki pulled away slightly in the race’s second half, while Oda passed Inotsume into turn one on lap four then hunted down Jia before taking fourth from him at turn one on lap 14.
Inotsume held off Irie from lap nine until the final lap when he got past despite going off before turn three.
Results round-up
Race 1 (22 laps)
1 Tokiya Suzuki TOM’S 30m52.645s
2 Kento Omiya Ponos Racing +7.620s
3 Kiyoshi Umegaki TOM’S +8.183s
4 Zhanbin Jia B-MAX Racing +26.455s
5 Anna Inotsume Hitotsuyama Racing +27.065s
6 Hideaki Irie Fujita Pharmacy Racing +32.516s
7 Yutaka Toriba Aiwin +1m26.174s
8 “Yugo” N-Speed +1 lap
Ret Yu Oda Rn-sports
Pole: Suzuki, 1m17.231s
Fastest lap: Suzuki, 1m17.693s
Race 2 (22 laps)
1 Umegaki 28m42.983s
2 Suzuki +1.191s
3 Omiya +3.648s
4 Jia +30.948s
5 Toriba +31.666s
6 Oda +32.024s
7 Irie +36.518s
9 Inotsume +52.976s
9 “Yugo” +1 lap
P: Suzuki, 1m16.802s
FL: Suzuki, 1m17.677s
Race 3 (22 laps)
1 Umegaki 28m37.706s
2 Omiya +1.769s
3 Suzuki +2.224s
4 Oda +27.599s
5 Jia +38.070s
6 Irie +42.571s
7 Inotsume +43.017s
8 Toriba +43.261s
9 “Yugo” +1 lap
P: Suzuki, 1m17.439s
FL: Suzuki, 1m17.574s
Championship standings
1 Umegaki 185 2 Suzuki 178.5 3 Omiya 145.5 4 Kazuhisa Urabe 86 5 Toriba 60 6 Oda 59.5 7 Jia 55 8 Inotsume 51 9 Chenghua Lin 44 10 Irie 43