Kyojo Cup: Rio Shimono takes record-breaking eighth win in wet season finale
- MARCO ALBERTINI
- 7 hours ago
- 2 min read
Rio Shimono scored her eighth win of the season and sixth in a row in a wet Kyojo Cup finale at Fuji to end the year 51 points ahead of Miki Onaga.
Rio Shimono scored her eighth win of the season and sixth in a row in a wet Kyojo Cup finale at Fuji to end the year 51 points ahead of Miki Onaga.
In the final race of the 2025 Kyojo Cup season, Rio Shimono led all 12 laps to further establish her dominance this year.
As the starting grid for the final was based off the results of the Sprint, Shimono started on pole for the final race of the year, held in wet conditions. As a result, the first three laps were spent behind the safety car before the race began on lap four with Shimono timing her start perfectly to pull away from Miki Onaga.
Two laps later, Marie Iwaoka dropped to ninth, behind Mako Hirakawa, who had started 13th and had made remarkable progress in the early stages. Hirakawa then overtook Ryu Yamamoto for seventh at Dunlop on lap seven, as Iwaoka tried to follow her through but was unable to make the move stick.
However, at the start of the following lap, Iwaoka got past Yamamoto for eighth at the first corner. On lap nine, Sitarvee Limnantharak and Maaya Orido collided, sending the latter down the order as Limnantharak picked up front wing damage.
As the field settled down in the closing stages, Shimono remained unchallenged as she took her eighth win of the season ahead of Onaga and Aimi Saito, who joined her on the podium. Rami Sasaki and Kokoro Sato rounded out the top five, as Hana Burton and Hirakawa followed suit in sixth and seventh. Iwaoka, Yuika Hosokawa and Itsumo Shiraishi rounded out the top ten, while Kilei Kanemoto and Riona Tomishita finished just outside of it in 11th and 12th.
Miku Ikejima gained seven positions to finish 13th, while Yamamoto fell down to 14th, ahead of Flame Arikkala and Ayumu Nagai. Orido finished 17th, ahead of Limnantharak, who was given a 30-second penalty for her collision with the former. Zhao Yunqing was the last car to cross the line in 19th, as Kelsey Pinkowski was the only retiree of the season finale.