Photo: FRJC
Kiyoshi Umegaki wrapped up the Formula Regional Japanese Championship title in last weekend’s season finale at Suzuka.
His rival and TOM’S team-mate Tokiya Suzuki started the weekend ahead as he pipped Umegaki to race one pole by 0.087 seconds. B-MAX Racing’s Kazuhisa Urabe was third, 0.109s behind, and 0.011s split Kento Omiya (Ponos Racing) and Hibiki Komatsu (Rn-sports) in fourth and fifth.
A 1m55.160s in Q2 earned Urabe race two pole by 0.165s over Umegaki, with Suzuki a further 0.116s back. Omiya and Komatsu were fourth and fifth again.
Drivers’ second-best laptimes set race three’s grid, and Komatsu claimed his maiden pole by 0.137s. Just 0.039s then split Urabe, Suzuki, Umegaki and Omiya in the top five.
It was sunny for race one on Saturday afternoon, and Suzuki swept to the inside at the start to cover off Umegaki. That left the outside line free for Urabe to pass the points leader for second, and he spent the rest of the race holding him off while Suzuki built a 4.08s lead to close to within 13.5 points of Umegaki.
Komatsu lost out to Rn-sports’ Yu Oda on lap one, but got back past on lap two and was just 0.351s behind Omiya at race-end.
Ragno Motor Sport’s Chenghua Lin was seventh until striking trouble mid-race and ending his day in the pits.
Race two was early the next morning, and this time Lin’s troubles struck before the start and ruled him out.
Omiya and Suzuki got either side of Umegaki off the line, with Suzuki taking second on the outside then weaving his way to turn one to prevent Omiya from maximising the inside line. It was side-by-side for third through the first two corners, and Umegaki managed to nose back ahead.
Suzuki challenged poleman Urabe into turn one on lap two, and was on his gearbox on lap three as Urabe weaved down the pit straight. At the final chicane there was an attempted dive by Suzuki, and when they reached turn one on lap four he went to the outside. They banged wheels, Suzuki went off and into the barriers at high speed, and the safety car was summoned.
Urabe immediately built a one-second gap on the restart, then gradually added to that gap while trading fastest laps with the trio behind. Umegaki clinched title by finishing second, ahead of Omiya and Kamatsu.
Race three began with Urabe taking the lead on the inside, but Komatsu’s pace meant he was all over Urabe on several laps. He tried the outside at turn one on lap four, forced Urabe into defending on lap six, and on the last lap almost touched the rear of the leader’s car into the chicane.
Suzuki kept them in sight initially, before being gapped significantly in the last few laps. Umegaki was fourth, inherited after Omiya stopped on-track as lap two began.
Results round-up
Race 1 (13 laps)
1 Tokiya Suzuki TOM’S 25m27.655s
2 Kazuhisa Urabe B-MAX Racing +4.088s
3 Kiyoshi Umegaki TOM’S +4.834s
4 Kento Omiya Ponos Racing +7.103s
5 Hibiki Komatsu Rn-sports +7.454s
6 Yu Oda Rn-sports +22.978s
7 Anna Inotsume Hitotsuyama Racing +30.088s
8 “Akita” Abbey Racing +40.537s
9 Hideaki Irie Fujita Pharmacy Racing +44.038s
10 Shoichiro Akamatsu Eagle Sport +46.799s
Pole: Suzuki, 1m55.928s
Fastest lap: Suzuki, 1m56.949s
Race 2 (13 laps)
1 Urabe 27m22.925s
2 Umegaki +1.573s
3 Omiya +2.192s
4 Komatsu +2.597s
5 Oda +17.353s
6 Inotsume +22.023s
7 Zhanbin Jia B-MAX Racing +26.732s
8 Yutaka Toriba Aiwin +26.732s
9 Irie +28.945s
10 “Yugo” N-Speed +1m18.301s
P: Urabe, 1m55.160s
FL: Komatsu, 1m57.282s
Race 3 (13 laps)
1 Urabe 25m41.282s
2 Komatsu +0.674s
3 Suzuki +4.380s
4 Umegaki +6.026s
5 Oda +17.710s
6 Chenghua Lin Ragno Motor Sport +18.361s
7 Toriba +28.715s
8 Inotsume +30.931s
9 Jia +34.546s
10 “Akita” +35.862s
P: Komatsu, 1m56.195s
FL: Komatsu, 1m58.172s
Championship standings
1 Umegaki 280 2 Suzuki 251.5 3 Urabe 187 4 Omiya 184.5 5 Oda 101.5 6 Inotsume 75 7 Lin 70 8 Toriba 70 9 Jia 65 10 Irie 49