Kyojo Cup: Who will beat Tomishita?
- MARCO ALBERTINI
- Jul 15
- 2 min read
Last time out in May, Cerumo/Inging's Riona Tomishita was unmatched in the season-opening round, as she took pole and dominated both races to take an early championship lead over Joanne Ciconte. As Kyojo Cup returns to action this weekend, will Tomishita be able to increase her championship lead or will we see a different face at the top of the podium?
Toyota-supported Riona Tomishita leads the championship on 33 points after taking the paddock by storm in May with her two wins from pole, ahead of series newcomer and KCMG driver Joanne Ciconte, who trails her in the standings by eight points.
Behind them, 2024 series champion Aimi Saito sits third in points as the highest-placed TOM'S driver after finishing race three on the podium behind the Tomishita-Ciconte duo. The Kanagawa-born driver rose from seventh to third in the KYOJO Final to take her first podium of the season and enter round two three points ahead of Miki Onaga.
The 2022 series champion had an uncharacteristically quiet start to the season, finishing fourth in both races, the first time she didn't finish in the top three in the season-opening round since 2021. Rounding out the top five in overall points is Tomishita's teammate, Kokoro Sato, who is just two points behind Onaga.
The Hyogo-born racer is the only other driver to have climbed podium in May, finishing third in the Sprint race before taking sixth in the Final behind AiWin's Ai Miura. Owner-driver Miura, who has won Kyojo Cup titles both as a driver and as a team owner, delivered a positive showing in her return to the series by battling with old rivals and running competitively in both races.
Just one point behind Miura in seventh is Rio Shimono. After dominating last year's edition of the series with eight wins in 10 races, Impul by Dr.Dry's ran up front in the Sprint, but ultimately failed to crack the top five in the season-opener last time out. Eighth overall, TOM'S racer Hana Burton had a rather unlucky round in May, running fourth in the Sprint before a spin forced her to the back of the field. From there, Burton bounced back to 12th by the checkered flag, before gaining four more places in the Final to take her first points of the season.
Rounding out the top 10 in points are Rami Sasaki and rookie Sara Matsui, who were the only other drivers to score points all weekend, with Matsui's ninth-place finish in the Final marking Kondo Racing's first points in the series. Elsewhere on the grid, Rookie Racing and Mako Hirakawa will join the grid after skipping the season-opener due to Hirakawa's commitments in rallying.
On-track action will begin on Thursday as the first three practice sessions will be held at 13:20, 14:40 and 16:00 local times respectively. Three more practice sessions are scheduled for the following day, at 8:45, 10:20 and 13:00 on Friday.
Saturday's qualifying will be live streamed in both Japanese on the Inter Proto Series x Kyojo Cup YouTube channel at 9:20 local time (UTC+9), whilst the Kyojo Sprint will begin three hours later, at 12:35. The final race of the weekend, the Kyojo Final, will be contested at 12:55 on Sunday.
