Kyojo Cup: Riona Tomishita takes maiden series win in dominant fashion
- MARCO ALBERTINI
- May 9
- 2 min read
In the first race of the Kyojo Cup season, Cerumo/Inging's Riona Tomishita put on a dominant display from pole, leading every lap as she took her first series win with a healthy gap from KCMG's Joanne Ciconte and teammate Kokoro Sato.
In the first race of the Kyojo Cup season, Cerumo/Inging's Riona Tomishita put on a dominant display from pole, leading every lap as she took her first series win with a healthy gap from KCMG's Joanne Ciconte and teammate Kokoro Sato.
Nineteen-year-old Riona Tomishita scored her long-awaited first win of the season in the opening Sprint race of the season, doing so from pole, as she kept Australian rookie Joanne Ciconte at bay.
The Cerumo/Inging's speed was already apparent in qualifying on Saturday morning, in which her 1:43.604, set with six minutes on the clock, put her on pole by a comfortable 0.238 seconds over Ciconte. 2024 champion Aimi Saito was third, while last year's champion Rio Shimono was down in eighth, in the second-ever weekend without the hybrid system in all cars.
From pole, Tomishita led from Ciconte, while Saito dropped to my fifth, behind Kokoro Sato and Miki Onaga. The TOM'S driver then fell behind her teammate Hana Burton and briefly went off course at Dunlop, and returned to the the track in sixth. By then, Burton was up to fourth, but her joy was crushed when she spun at the last corner and fell to the the back of the pack, as Shimono made her way up to fifth in the midst of the chaos.
Shimono then attempted to pass Onaga for fourth at turn 1 on the following lap, but was kept at bay from the KCMG driver. Behind them, the field began to spread out, as Rami Sasaki began climbing through the field from her 13th-place starting position by passing Paige Raddatz for 12th at the beginning of lap four.
As Sasaki continued her rise through the field, cameras switched to the battle for fifth between Saito and Shimono, which saw the former get by for fifth as they headed to the first corner on lap seven.
Up ahead, Tomishita remained unchallenged as she led all 10 laps from pole, as well as taking the fastest lap, to secure her first career win by 2.108 seconds over Ciconte, as Sato rounded out the podium. Onaga and Saito were fourth and fifth, as Shimono held on to sixth, ahead of the retuning Ai Miura in seventh, while Sasaki rounded out her impressive charge through the field by taking the last point in eighth.
Kondo Racing's Sara Matsui finished ninth on her single-seater debut ahead of Kilei Kanemoto, while Itsumo Shiraishi finished 11th, ahead of Hana Burton, who rebounded from her early-race spin to take 12th.
Marie Iwaoka was 13th, ahead of Raddatz and Ryu Yamamoto, while Kelsey Pinkowski, Sitargee Limnantharak and Rina Ito were the last cars to cross the line.
