Kyojo Cup: Shimono dominates, Sasaki takes maiden podium

Impul with Dr.Dry's Rio Shimono took her fourth win in six races to extend her points lead over Miki Onaga in the standings, as Rami Sasaki claimed her first-ever career podium, ahead of Riona Tomishita who jumped to sixth after taking back-to-back podiums.

Photo credits: TGR

In the third Kyojo Final of the season, Rio Shimono took a crushing victory over KCMG's Rami Sasaki and Cerumo/INGING's Riona Tomishita as title rivals Miki Onaga and Aimi Saito faced uphill battles starting from the back.

Shimono started on pole for the Kyojo Final and kept the lead at the start as Itsumo Shiraishi went from fourth to sixth, while Hana Burton spun behind them. Despite coming to a stop momentarily, the American was able to restart her car and rejoin the race, albeit at the back of the pack.

On the following lap, Flame Airikkala and Marie Iwaoka had separate spins of their own at the same spot, and both were able to continue the race without damage.

As Shiraishi overtook Kokoro Sato for fifth, Sasaki had already charged up to fourth in the opening stages and had begun chasing down Tomishita for third. On lap three, Sasaki made the move on Tomishita at TGR Corner to take third away from the Cerumo/INGING driver as she set off to take second from Hirakawa.

Three laps later, Sasaki made quick work of Hirakawa, overtaking her at TGR Corner and setting the fastest lap on the same lap as she pulled away from the Rookie Racing driver. However, Hirakawa fell into the clutches of Tomishita and began defending from her in the closing stages.

Behind them, Onaga, who started 15th, overtook Miku Ikejima around the outside of TGR Corner to take eighth place, while Shiraishi spun from sixth at the penultimate corner, thus promoting Onaga to seventh with a handful of laps left.

With just three laps remaining, Tomishita made a brave move around the outside of Hirakawa at TGR Corner in an attempt to take third away from her, which would be in vain as Hirakawa kept her at bay on the exit. However, Tomishita was able to surprise Hirakawa with a move at the Hairpin to take third as they headed into the final sector.

Behind them, Onaga had begun attacking Kilei Kanemoto for sixth, which didn't prove fruitful at first for the KCMG driver as Kanemoto held her off. However, just when the cameras turned to Ayumu Nagai's spin a lap later at the penultimate corner, Onaga emerged in front of Kanemoto as they began the final lap.

Up front, Shimono took her fourth win of the season in dominant fashion ahead of Sasaki, who took her career-best result ahead of Tomishita, who scored her second consecutive podium of the season. Hirakawa and Sato rounded out the top five, whilst Onaga's recovery drive from 16th saw her gain ten places in 12 laps as she barely missed out on the top five. Kanemoto held on to seventh as Ikejima took eighth ahead of Sitarvee Limnantharak, who took her first points of the season ahead of last round's Kyojo Sprint winner, Saito.

Maaya Orido took her best result of the season in 11th, ahead of Yuika Hosokawa and Marie Iwaoka, whilst Burton could only muster 14th after her lap one spin, and Ryu Yamamoto crossed the line in 15th. Nagai and Shiraishi were only able to finish 16th and 17th respectively after their late-race spins, whereas Airikkala ended the race in 18th, ahead of Zhao Yun Qing and Kelsey Pinkowski, who rounded out the field.