Kyojo Cup: Kokoro Sato takes first career win, Tomishita extends points lead
Cerumo/Inging's Kokoro Sato took a highly anticipated maiden win of her career in the penultimate final of the season, as the KCMG duo of Joanne Ciconte and Miki Onaga joined her on the podium.
Following a promising start to the weekend with a podium in the Sprint, Kokoro Sato broke through on Sunday to take her first-ever win in single-seater competition. Cerumo/Inging teammate Riona Tomishita extended her points lead, after title rival Aimi Saito's retirement in the closing stages.
As the results of the sprint made up the grid for the final, Onaga led the field at the rolling start, while Sato nearly fell to fourth, but was able to quickly get back into second at Turn 1. Behind them, Saito passed Ai Miura for fourth at Dunlop, in which the former picked up minor front wing damage, while Rio Shimono began attacking Tomishita for seventh at the final corner.
At the start of the following lap, the duel between Saito and Miura saw the latter retake fourth at Turn 1, with Sara Matsui moving up to fifth as Saito ran wide. The TOM'S driver was then passed by Shimono at Turn 3, but as she kept losing ground and eventually fell to seventh, Miura and Matsui collided at Turn 6, putting an end to both of their races.
Following a brief safety car period to clean up the debris, the race resumed on lap 6, with Sato benefitting from Onaga running wide at Turn 1 to take the lead with a brilliant move around the outside of Turn 3. Behind them, championship leader Tomishita had managed to claw her way back up to fifth and began defending said position from Shimono and of her main rival Saito.
While Tomishita held both of them off at the beginning of lap seven, Onaga desperately tried retaking the lead from Sato, but in doing so allowed Joanne Ciconte to sweep past into second. As Sato began to pull away, Shimono passed Tomishita at Turn 3, while a mistake under braking from Saito at Turn 1 on lap nine saw her hit Tomishita and the left-side barriers.
The collision between the title contenders barely had an effect on Tomishita, who escaped without damage, while Saito pulled into the pits to retire, placing her title aspirations in doubt with a round to spare.
On lap 10, Shimono moved up into fourth by passing Kilei Kanemoto at Turn 1, as Ryu Yamamoto spun behind them at Turn 3, but was able to continue.
Up front, Sato held on to take her first-ever win in Kyojo Cup ahead of the KCMG duo of Ciconte and Onaga, as Shimono took fourth Kanemoto held off Tomishita to finish fifth. Itsumo Shiraishi was seventh, as Mako Hirakawa, Paige Raddatz and Rami Sasaki rounded out the top ten.
Marie Iwaoka and Rina Ito were 11th and 12th, ahead of Sitarvee Limnantharak and Zhao Yunqing. Kelsey Pinkowski matched her season-best result of 15th, ahead of Yamamoto and Hana Burton.
