Kyojo Cup: Miki Onaga takes long-awaited first win of the season
In the fourth sprint race of the 2026 Kyojo Cup season, KCMG's Miki Onaga broke through to take her first win of the season ahead of Kokoro Sato and Joanne Ciconte.
Following a rather uncharacteristically quiet first half of the season, Miki Onaga was ready to show her race-winning pace was still there ahead of the fourth round of the season. At the start of qualifying, it seemed like a different story though, as Onaga briefly stopped on track while Kokoro Sato set the pace early on in qualifying.
It wasn't long until the Okinawa-native regained confidence and stormed up the order by taking provisional pole with a few minutes on the clock, with teammate Rami Sasaki taking second. Their lap times weren't challenged though, as when the clock winded down and qualifying came to a close, the KCMG duo locked out the front row for the sprint race. Behind them, Kokoro Sato and Joanne Ciconte completed the second row, as championship contenders Aimi Saito and Riona Tomishita were fifth and seventh.
Following the return of the rolling start procedure, Onaga led the way at the start, while Sato passed Sasaki for second heading down to Turn 1. At the start of the following lap, Sasaki attempted to retake the position from Sato, but a five-way battle for eighth behind them took the spotlight in which Sara Matsui passed Paige Raddatz into Turn 1 to take eighth.
Just ahead of them, Sasaki ran wide on the exit of Turn 3, which allowed Ciconte to begin attacking her teammate for second, which she took at Turn 6. Sasaki then fell into the clutches of Ai Miura, who passed her for fourth at Dunlop, while Saito followed her through at Turn 13. The KCMG racer then had a difficult time traversing through the final sector, which allowed Tomishita and Matsui to slingshot past her on the main straight to move Sasaki down to eighth.
A lap later, Sasaki fought back to take seventh away from Matsui in brave fashion around the outside of Turn 3. Behind them two laps later, Raddatz held off Itsumo Shiraishi's attacks in the first sector to maintain tenth. The Australian's race took an unexpected turn a lap later though, as a collision with Hana Burton at Turn 3 saw her spin down the order. In the closing stages, as Miura defended fourth from Saito, Matsui decisively re-took seventh from Sasaki at Turn 1 with two laps to go.
Up ahead, Onaga took the checkered flag to take her long-awaited first win of the season ahead of Sato and KCMG teammate Ciconte. Miura successfully held off Saito for fourth, as Tomishita finished sixth to head to the final with a narrow one-point lead over the TOM'S racer and title rival. As Matsui and Sasaki rounded out the points-paying positions, Rio Shimono and Shiraishi closed our the top ten.
Burton salvaged 11th at the line, ahead of Kilei Kanemoto and Mako Hirakawa. Marie Iwaoka and Sitarvee Limnantharak were next across the line, while Ryu Yamamoto and Zhao Yunqing were the last cars to cross the line in 16th and 17th.
The Fujisan Shizuoka Racing duo of Rina Ito and Raddatz both retired, the former after sustaining front wing damage in the closing stages, while Kelsey Pinkowski's race grounded to a halt at the mid-way point.
