Juju Noda endures rocky start to Super Formula season at Motegi

Driving for her family-run team in her third season at the top level of Japanese single-seaters, Juju Noda faced adversity in the season-opening Motegi rounds, during which she nevertheless showed steady pace in Sunday's event to bring home valuable experience.

Ph credits: Juju Noda Racing

Tokyo-born rising star Juju Noda began her third Super Formula season on a challenging note, with a troubled race one before finishing 22nd in race two, in a weekend in which she nevertheless demonstrated promising improvements amidst the difficult conditions.

The weekend started off on Saturday morning's first qualifying session, in which Noda bested Nobuharu Matsushita's Delightworks Racing to take 11th in Group B, allowing her to start race one from 20th on the grid.

Later in the day, race one took place in treacherous wet conditions, in which Noda was caught out by the excess water on track and lost control of her car while the safety car led the way at the start. Following her spin, the red flag was deployed due to the amount of rain increasing, thus rendering the track unsafe to race on. After nearly one hour under red flag, the race resumed behind the safety car on a 50-minute time limit, and the green flag was only waved on lap 15, but racing didn't last long as Kamui Kobayashi and Ukyo Sasahara collided, sending the former into a spin and out of the race.

The safety car was deployed again as a result, during which Sasahara retired with terminal damage, while Zak O'Sullivan retired following a collision with Luke Browning just as the yellow flag was thrown out. When the race resumed on lap 20, Noda hit trouble and went off at Turn 5 and retired from the race after being unable to get herself out of the gravel.

For a third time the safety car was brought out on track, as it paced the field while the clock hit 0, securing the win for Dandelion Racing's Kakunoshin Ohta, while Ayumu Iwasa and Ren Sato completed the podium.

Dry conditions returned for Sunday morning's second qualifying session, in which Noda posted the 12th-best time in Group A, which landed her 24th on the grid for the second and final race of the weekend.

In said race, held later that day, Noda had a clean start as Tomoki Nojiri spun in the esses and was collected by Igor Fraga, who picked up sidepod damage, but both drivers were able to continue. Just two laps later however, the safety car was called out on the circuit for Rikuto Kobayashi's car stuck in the gravel trap of the final corner.

Following that, the race remained green until the end, during which Noda ran as high as 14th during the pit cycles, but ultimately fell down to 22nd by the checkered flag, to end the first weekend of the season on a difficult note, nevertheless still collecting valuable track time in the second race.

However, Noda won't have to wait long to be back in action, as the season's southern-most round will be held in three weeks' time at Autopolis on Kyushu Island.