From time attacks to circuit racing: Hana Burton's journey to Kyojo Cup

"I was just excited that it could even become reality" - Japanese-American Hana Burton talks us through her career from track days to Kyojo Cup as she prepares for this weekend's season opener of the all-female series at Fuji Speedway.

Ph: DrivingAthlete

California-born Hana Burton is one of the two Team TOM'S drivers for the upcoming Kyojo Cup season, alongside reigning Kyojo Cup champion Aimi Saito. However, her path to Kyojo Cup isn't like most on the grid.

Initially starting out as a social media manager and a complete stranger to cars, Burton was taught how to drive a Scion FR-S by HKS after being contacted for a marketing position. Soon after, Burton got the FR-S and began doing track days around the West Coast.

Talking about her time doing time attacks and comparing it to racing, Burton said: "I feel like with time attacks you're not comparing yourself much to others more than you are to yourself, because there is so much variation with the cars that you're driving so you're really just trying to push the limit of the car to your own limits."

"However, with racing you're always comparing to other people, especially in a one-make series, where there isn't that big of a difference between cars, so you know how much you can improve versus when you're doing time attacks you don't know the limit until you keep pushing and doing better."

Burton competed in track days and time attack competitions until 2022, when she moved to Japan to compete in the Yaris Cup to get her first taste of wheel-to-wheel racing. On her debut at Sugo, she finished 30th in a field of 45 cars, which led to her clinching rookie of the year honours at season's end.

"I think I was just excited that it could even become reality," Burton recalled. "Because racing in the US is quite expensive so there is a big barrier to it, but in Japan there is a lot of support from car brands. So they can really make it easier for normal salarymen and regular people to try racing at lower entry-level series like the Yaris Cup and even the Vita races, so it was really exciting for me."

Ph: Toyota GR

Coming from track days, Burton felt like she "lacked so much experience", having to "learn the whole side of racing" as she progressed up the ladder.

"At first it was really scary," Burton continued. "I don't think I had the fundamentals of driving down, so I didn't really know what I was doing at first. I was just trying to go fast, so I think it was a bittle dangerous at first, also I didnt know race craft so I didn't really know where to go and what I should be doing so that was a little bit scary."

"These are all things that my peers learned when they did karting so I always felt kind of dumb for not knowing these things that I felt like everyone knew. Eventually I learned it, especially with the Vita, there are so many cars that you have to learn. Online sim-racing, I did a lot of races at Tsukuba on iRacing and it really helped."

Despite lacking the experience and feeling down at first, Burton quickly adopted a mindset which helped her in ironing out mistakes and overall making her a faster driver.

"I think at first I felt a little bit regretful, 'why didnt I start sooner?', 'why couldn't I do this earlier?', 'I could be so much better now if I started earlier', but obviously having that mentality, you won't progress as you just kind of feel bad for yourself."

"I kind of had to pivot that energy into feeling like 'If I work ten times as hard in places where my peers are not working at right now then I can catch up', I needed to start karting, being on the sim longer, practicing as much as I can, I also needed to find more sponsors so I can race other things so I can learn more. I need to always be looking at my data, I need to be always talking to my coach, asking questions and so on. I feel like there is that sort of weird pressure of regret but if you funnel it into working harder it becomes really good motivation."

Burton stepped up to Kyojo Cup competition in 2023, joining Fujita Pharmacy Racing and taking her maiden points at the season finale, finishing eighth and concluding the season 11th in points. However, her first season wasn't a straight-forward one.

"On my debut there was rain, I locked the brakes and went straight into my teammate," Burton said. "After that I was scared of the rain for a while, but now I actually quite like it, because it rains so much in Japan and I feel that if you're confident in the rain, you can be more confident elsewhere. But I feel like because I did time attack, I always was mid-pack or above but I didn't know how to race against others, so that was difficult for me but once I got more races in I kind of understood it a little bit more."

Ph: DrivingAthlete

Joining TOM'S for her third season in Kyojo Cup, Burton also started being mentored by Daisuke Ito, who brings a lot of experience to the team and drivers. The Mie-born team director is the 2007 Super GT champion in GT500 and has also taken 10 wins in the series, three of which at the Suzuka 1000km, and was also the first driver to go under the 1:50 mark in GT500 machinery at Suzuka in 2007.

Following his title-winning campaign with Honda-affiliated ARTA, Ito joined Lexus-affiliated Team LeMans for 2008, which began his relationship with the Japanese manufacturer giant Toyota, which lasts to this day. Retiring from full-time competition at the end of 2017, Ito has stood on the pitwall ever since, watching TOM'S as it clinched four GT500 titles since then.

Talking about Ito, Burton said: "He has a lot of experience to pull information from and sometimes has advice that is a bit too high level for me but I like that. When he teaches he speaks in broad terms and touches on the general idea of driving so it makes me think a lot, which is what I need, because it helps me find the limit in each situation I'm in, faster than before."

Under Ito's mentorship, Burton performed well in Kyojo Cup pre-season testing, being second to Ayumu Nagai in the last test, held in wet conditions last month and being close to teammate and reigning champion Aimi Saito throughout testing.

It was also Burton's first competitive outing in a Formula 4 car, which felt 'overwhelming' at the beginning. "At first it was really overwhelming, because everything changes when you step into the car, Burton said. "What you see from the cockpit changes, the sound changes, the vibrations, how the car moves and so on. After that it felt really exciting because I was like, 'wow, it's my reality now'.

"It was a little bit difficult to adapt though because I wasn't used to having that much downforce and grip. The Vita is really light so the cornering speed felt faster but it didn't have slick tires, so you can slide entering corners but with the Formula cars you can't."

Ph: DrivingAthlete

Another feature that changed from last season in Kyojo Cup are the teams, as now most of the grid is composed of Toyota-backed teams, along with a few privateers. Whilst last year, the grid was primarily composed of privateer teams, along with a few estabilished names behind them, such as Ai Miura's Team M, which won the last two Kyojo Cup titles.

Burton drove for PassingMark last season, taking two top-five results, with a best result of fourth along with the fastest lap in race four en route to a ninth-place points finish.

Reflecting on her experience with the team, Burton said: "[PassingMark] felt very family-like, but we only had one mechanic for three cars and it was someone new to the job. It was a really good team because everyone worked hard but there were things that I had to do for myself, preparing the camera and other things, along with kind of having to think about stuff other than being a driver."

"Whereas now with TOM'S, I don't have to think about anything except driving and everyone kind of prepares things for me so that sets me up to be the best that I can be. There is a lot of pressure being in a team like this because I really have to think about my future and performing as good as possible."

During this winter, Burton also tested the Dome F110 chassis at Okayama and Formula Beat machinery at Fuji Speedway. The former was Japanese F4's sole chassis from 2015 to 2023, and is still in use by the F110 Cup, where fellow Kyojo Cup drivers Rio Shimono and Aimi Saito raced in two months ago as preparation for their respective Kyojo Cup campaigns.

The latter, meanwhile is used in the Formula Beat series, previously known as JAF Regional Formula 4, which is a cheaper alternative to Japanese F4 and has seen drivers such as Yuki Tsunoda, Tadasuke Makino, Toshiki Oyu and Yuhi Sekiguchi all be crowned champions in the series' 32-year history.

Comparing the latter with the KC-MG01, Burton said: "The Kyojo Cup car is honestly one of the safest formula cars I've ever driven. It doesn't move around in any scary way, it has so much grip and so much downforce. They made that car super safe but at the same time, whilst Formula Beat is so scary to drive."

"You have to countersteer it in 100R, it's always moving, it's super fast and super light and the tire grip is not there, so it's scary but I'm driving it because it's super fun and it is a really good car to train with so if I can find funding I really want to race in Formula Beat."

With the 2025 season just around the corner, Hana Burton is looking to make the best out of her opportunity, with the first round of the season at Fuji coming up this weekend. The curtain raiser will also feature a sprint and a feature race for the first time in the championship's history.

The first practice sessions will be held on Friday, whilst qualifying and the sprint race will be held on Saturday and the KYOJO Final will cap off the weekend on Sunday.