Second victory for Takuro Shinohara in TCR Japan

Takuro Shinohara claimed a comfortable victory in TCR Japan’s Race 1 at Twin Ring Motegi; this was the second win of the season for the Hitotsuyama Racing’s driver after the one he had scored in the season opener at Sugo.
Reigning champion Takeshi Matsumoto tried to chase Shinohara in the first part of the race, but then he lost contact and had to defend his second position from Ryo Shimono during the last lap. The Drago Racing’s lady finished third, claiming her first podium result in the championship.
Shinohara had beaten Matsumoto to the pole position with a lap of 2:01.726 that was 16 hundredths of a second faster than his rival’s. At the start, Shinohara took the lead from Matsumoto and Shimono, while Resshu Shioya and Hirobon sprinted from P6 and P7 on the grid to move into P4 and P5 respectively, pipping Hideki Nahakara and Mineki Okura.
The race soon became processional, with Shinohara creating a gap ahead of Matsumoto and Shimono.
Okura was recovering after a poor start and overtook ‘Mototino’ for P9 and Kenji Suzuki for P8, while ‘Hirobon’ managed to shake Nakahara off when the latter made a mistake in lap 7.
With Shinohara on his way to victory, Shimono was able to close the gap to Matsumoto who managed to keep her at bay and retained P2; the same happened with Junichi Umemoto who resisted Okura’s late assault to finish seventh.
Race 2 is scheduled to start tomorrow at 11:55 local time (04:55 CEST), with Matsumoto on pole position. Live streaming at www.tcr-series.com.  

Race 1
1. Takuro Shinohara (Hitotsuyama Racing, Audi RS 3 LMS), 11 laps
2. Takeshi Matsumoto (Team Wakayama, Volkswagen Golf GTI), 7.072
3. Ryo Shimono (Drago Racing, Honda Civic Type R), 7.556
4. Resshu Shioya (Team G/Motion, Honda Civic Type R), 27.146
5. ‘Hirobon’ (Birth Racing Project, Volkswagen Golf GTI), 30.491

Championship points – Saturday series
1. Takuro Shinohara 55 pts; 2. Takeshi Matsumoto 37; 3. Ryo Shimono 26

Picture: TCR Japan