‘Hirobon’ wins in a very wet Saturday Race at Autopolis
‘Hirobon’ claimed his second race win of the season in a very wet TCR Japan’s Saturday Race at Autopolis. At the wheel of his Birth Racing Project CUPRA, ‘Hirobon’ benefited from a mistake of pole-sitter Takuya Shirasaka to take the lead during the first lap and then he was able to reject the assault of lady driver Ai Miura’s DOME Racing Honda Civic. Masanobu Kato completed the podium ahead of Shirasaka.
The race started under torrential rain, pole-sitter Shirasaka took the lead from ‘Hirobon’, Kato and Mineki Okura, but during the first lap three cars fell victim to the aquaplaning. Jun Sato’s Volkswagen spun and rejoined, Shirasaka’s Honda skidded off the track, crashed into the tyre wall, bounced back on the tarmac and eventually rejoined, Okura’s Alfa Romeo went off onto the gravel trap and lost one lap.
In lap 2, Miura – who had Qualified third fastest, but had been demoted to P7 on the grid for an engine change – overtook Kato for P2 and began to close the gap to ‘Hirobon’, while Shirasaka passed Kenji Suzuki moving into P4. Later Suzuki dropped two more positions as he was passed by Masayoshi Oyama and Sato.
‘Hirobon’ defended fiercely the leadership from Miura who risked a few times to lose control and go off. Despite her efforts, Miura was not able to get close enough to try an overtaking manoeuvre and finished second, six tenths behind.
In a similar way, Kato managed to retain the third position, keeping the recovering Shirasaka at bay until the end by four tenths.
The Sunday Series’ race is due to start tomorrow at 09:45 local time (02:45 CEST), with Miura on pole position and ‘Hirobon’ alongside him; live streaming at www.tcr-series.com.
Autopolis – Race 1
1. ‘Hirobon’ (Birth Racing Project, CUPRA), 10 laps
2. Ai Miura (DOME Racing, Honda Civic Type R FK8), 0.652
3. Masanobu Kato (Team Mars, Audi RS 3 LMS), 11.061
4. Takuya Shirasaka (DreamDrive with KCMG, Honda Civic Type R FK8), 12.009
5. Masayoshi Oyama (Akiland Racing, Honda Civic Type R FK8), 1:42.210
Championship points – Saturday series
1. ‘Hirobon’ 38 pts; 2. Keiichi Inoue 28; 3. Jun Sato 28
Picture: TCR Japan
