‘Hirobon’ wins twice in TCR Japan at Okayama

BRP’s ‘Hirobon’ won both the TCR Japan races at Okayama International Circuit in his CUPRA Leon Competición and built a comfortable leading margin in the standings of both the Saturday and Sunday Series. Anna Inotsume and ‘Mototino’ shared second and third places; these were the first podium results for ‘Mototino’ in the championship.

‘Hirobon’ topped the Qualifying for Saturday’s race, beating Mineki Okura and Inotsume by one and three tenths respectively. Resshu Shioya’s Honda did not get away for the formation lap due to electrical issues, cutting the field down to seven cars. At the start, Okura had a better reflex and led from ‘Hirobon’ and Inotsume. The latter soon lost contact with the leading pair who continued fighting until ‘Hirobon’ overtook Okura with two laps to go and pulled away towards his second win of the season, the first in the Saturday Series. Okura slowed and dropped to fourth, which promoted Inotsume and ‘Mototino’ to second and third.

In the Qualifying for Sunday’s race, Inotsume was 58 hundredths of a second faster than ‘Hirobon’ to claim her first pole position. As the pair battled to take the lead at the start, Okura passed them both on the outside of T1. However, during the first lap, ‘Hirobon’ overtook Okura for the lead and ‘Mototino’ passed Inotsume for second. Up front, ‘Hirobon’ was not able to shake Okura off until the Alfa Romeo driver served a drive through for jump start in lap 7, which left ‘Hirobon’ leading with a comfortable advantage over the trio ‘Mototino’, Inotsume, Masanobu Kato that finished in the order behind him, all covered by less than one second.

The third race meeting of TCR Japan will be at Sugo on 23/24 July.

Okayama – Race 1
1. ‘Hirobon’ (Birth Racing Project, CUPRA Leon Competición), 14 laps
2. Anna Inotsume (Dome Racing, Honda Civic Type R), 5.293
3. ‘Mototino’ (55Moto Racing, Honda Civic Type R Fk7), 10.042

Okayama – Race 2
1. ‘Hirobon’ (Birth Racing Project, CUPRA Leon Competición), 15 laps
2. ‘Mototino’ (55Moto Racing, Honda Civic Type R Fk7), 9.176
3. Anna Inotsume (Dome Racing, Honda Civic Type R), 9.497

Championship points – Saturday Series
1. ‘Hirobon’, 53; 2. A. Inotsume 34; 3. M. Okura 30 

Championship points – Sunday Series
1. ‘Hirobon’, 59 pts; 2. M. Kato 33; 3. A. Inotsume 31 

Picture: TCR Japan