Kyojo Cup: Rio Shimono wins, heartbreak for Sasaki

In the fourth round of the Fuji-based Kyojo Cup season, Shimono kicked off the weekend with a dominant lights-to-flag win ahead of Miki Onaga and Kokoro Sato. There was heartbreak for Rami Sasaki, who ran in the top three for most of the race, before falling down the order on the final corner of the final lap.

Photo credits: Kyojo Cup

In the fourth round of the Fuji-based Kyojo Cup season, Shimono kicked off the weekend with a dominant lights-to-flag win ahead of Miki Onaga and Kokoro Sato. Rami Sasaki, who ran in the top three for most of the race, lost 8 positions on the final lap after running wide at the final corner.

Impul with Dr Dry's Rio Shimono set the pace in the early stages of the second-to-last round of the Kyojo Cup season by taking pole and winning the sprint. While Miki Onaga and Kokoro Sato joined her on the podium, while Rami Sasaki finished down in 11th after running third for most of the race.

In qualifying, the wet conditions proved to be a tough challenge for the grid, as Ryu Yamamoto spun in the early stages, while Kokoro Sato crashed at 100R at the mid-point of the session.

At the top of the timing sheets, Onaga led the early parts of qualifying, before Shimono became the driver to beat shortly before the session was red flagged due to Sato's crash. The session eventually resumed with a handful of minutes left, as Shimono secured pole with Sasaki jumping teammate Onaga to start second.

The track remained wet for the race, forcing the safety car to lead the field for the first three laps. When the race got underway on lap four, Shimono built up a big gap to the cars behind, while Aimi Saito passed Hana Burton at Dunlop for sixth.

On the following lap, Onaga began dueling with Sasaki for second in the final sector, with the 2022 series champion coming out on top as Sasaki was relegated to third. Behind them, Riona Tomishita spun at 100R while running seventh and rejoined the pack in 13th.

Tomishita then moved up to 12th on lap six, passing teammate Sitarvee Limnantharak in the first half of the lap and then passing Mako Hirakawa for 11th at the Dunlop chicane. At the same corner, Limnantharak went wide and had to take to the escape road, but rejoined the pack without losing positions.

On lap seven, Ayumu Nagai spun from 10th at the final corner and fell to last.  Ahead of her, Limnantharak then went off at Turn 1 on the following lap and also fell to last, before heading back to the pits with a mechanical issue.

At the front, Shimono led from lights to flag, taking her fifth win of the season ahead of Onaga and Sato, who completed the podium. Shiraishi and Saito finished in the top five, whereas Ikejima scored her season-best result of sixth ahead of Kanemoto and Burton, who completed the points-paying positions.

Tomishita had a trouble-free final part of the race as she crossed the line in ninth, ahead of Hirakawa. Sasaki was on course to finish third, but after going wide at the final corner, she dropped to 11th, finishing just ahead of Orido.

Airikkala ended her third Kyojo Cup race in 13th, ahead of Iwaoka and Yamamoto, while Hosokawa and Pinkowski were both able to edge out Nagai to finish 16th and 17th, respectively. The Dojo Racing driver was only able to pass Zhao following her spin, as the Chinese driver was the last car to cross the line, as Limnantharak was classified in 20th despite retiring in the pits.