2008 Formula Challenge Japan

2008 Formula Challenge Japan

Drivers' champion: Yūji Kunimoto

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The 2008 Formula Challenge Japan was a multi-event motor racing championship for open-wheel formula racing cars, and the third season of the Formula Challenge Japan racing series, a young driver development series jointly supported by Honda, Toyota, and Nissan. The championship featured a mix of manufacturer-affiliated drivers and independent entries, and commenced on 5 April and ended on 21 September. All but one of the race weekends were run in support of the Formula Nippon Championship.

Toyota junior driver Yūji Kunimoto, whose brother Keisuke had won the previous year's title, dominated the championship in his second year of competition. Kunimoto took eight wins and seven pole positions from the season's sixteen races, and finished all but one race on the podium to secure a 101-point lead over his nearest rival, Nissan junior and former Formula BMW UK driver Kimiya Satō. Nissan stablemate Katsumasa Chiyo won thrice to finish third in the standings, while Takamitsu Matsui and Tsubasa Mekaru took the remaining race victories.

Teams and drivers

Team No. Driver Rounds XGamut Mitsuba-ya FCJ 1 Hikaru Abe All C-SPAN San-M FCJ 2 Kazuumi Kobayashi All Rêve RT FCJ 3 Kazuki Kawamura All SRS-F Scholarship SRS-F SANAI FCJ 4 Takashi Kobayashi All 6 Shigetomo Shimono All 15 Kazuki Miura All 26 Kazuma Kokubu All FTRS TDP Scholarship Sugamata Sekkotsuin FTRS Café Julia FTRS Team Samurai FTRS FTRS Team NATS Citykart FTRS 5 Naoya Gamou All 8 Yūji Kunimoto All 9 Tsubasa Mekaru All 13 Toshihiro Hinata All 17 Tohjirō Azuma All 20 Takamitsu Matsui All 21 Makoto Kanai All 22 Yūichi Nakayama All 23 Kōta Matsui All Iwasaki Industry 7 Yūki Iwasaki All NDDP NDDP MyBrans 10 Kimiya Satō All 12 Daiki Sasaki All 18 Katsumasa Chiyo All 19 Masayuki Yamashita All DL Team Naoki 11 Mika Kagoshima All Broval.jp NAC 14 Kenji Hosokawa All A-Project FCJ 16 Kōta Lee All H.I.S. Travel FCJ 24 Igor Sushko All Winds Nikoya FCJ 25 Kōtarō Hatano All Source

Race calendar and results

All races were held in Japan. All rounds, with the exception of rounds 7–8, were run in support of Formula Nippon.

Round	Circuit	Date	Pole position	Fastest lap	Winning driver
1	Fuji Speedway, Oyama	5 April	Takamitsu Matsui	Yūji Kunimoto	Takamitsu Matsui
2		6 April	Yūji Kunimoto	Takamitsu Matsui	Yūji Kunimoto
3	Suzuka Circuit, Suzuka	10 May	Takamitsu Matsui	Kenji Hosokawa	Katsumasa Chiyo
4		11 May	Katsumasa Chiyo	Katsumasa Chiyo	Katsumasa Chiyo
5	Twin Ring Motegi, Motegi	24 May	Takamitsu Matsui	Yūji Kunimoto	Yūji Kunimoto
6		25 May	Yūji Kunimoto	Takamitsu Matsui	Katsumasa Chiyo
7	Fuji Speedway, Oyama	28 June	Yūji Kunimoto	Yūji Kunimoto	Yūji Kunimoto
8		29 June	Yūji Kunimoto	Takamitsu Matsui	Takamitsu Matsui
9	Suzuka Circuit, Suzuka	12 July	Yūji Kunimoto	Kimiya Satō	Yūji Kunimoto
10		13 July	Naoya Gamou	Kimiya Satō	Kimiya Satō
11	Twin Ring Motegi, Motegi	9 August	Tsubasa Mekaru	Takashi Kobayashi	Tsubasa Mekaru
12		10 August	Kimiya Satō	Takashi Kobayashi	Takamitsu Matsui
13	Fuji Speedway, Oyama	30 August	Masayuki Yamashita	Kimiya Satō	Yūji Kunimoto
14		31 August	Makoto Kanai	Yūji Kunimoto	Yūji Kunimoto
15	Sportsland SUGO, Murata	20 September	Yūji Kunimoto	Yūji Kunimoto	Yūji Kunimoto
16		21 September	Yūji Kunimoto	Takamitsu Matsui	Yūji Kunimoto

Championship standings

Drivers' Championship

Points were awarded to the top ten classified finishers, with one point awarded for pole position and fastest lap respectively.

1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	PP	FL
20	15	12	10	8	6	4	3	2	1	1	1

Pos. Driver FUJ SUZ MOT FUJ SUZ MOT FUJ SUG Points 1 Yūji Kunimoto 2 1 3 3 1 2 1 4 1 3 3 3 1 1 1 1 272 2 Kimiya Satō 4 6 4 6 6 7 2 2 2 1 14 2 3 3 6 2 171 3 Katsumasa Chiyo 3 14 1 1 2 1 7 9 7 5 15 4 2 21 7 Ret 136 4 Takamitsu Matsui 1 2 DNS 22 23 6 3 1 10 16 6 1 4 14 9 4 129 5 Makoto Kanai 16 15 6 5 13 16 13 5 21 10 2 5 9 2 5 6 78 6 Masayuki Yamashita 14 10 Ret 2 12 4 4 3 3 6 Ret 24 17 12 18 17 67 7 Tsubasa Mekaru 7 5 Ret 4 4 Ret 9 Ret 12 19 1 6 16 9 DNS 15 63 8 Naoya Gamou 13 12 13 7 24 Ret 6 Ret 4 2 10 10 15 22 3 3 62 9 Takashi Kobayashi 5 3 Ret 16 Ret 9 26 13 11 9 7 8 8 Ret 2 21 51 10 Kazuki Miura 6 19 11 Ret 25 3 23 6 5 4 22 17 Ret 24 10 8 46 11 Kōta Lee 17 Ret 7 14 7 8 5 24 Ret 12 17 11 5 6 12 10 34 12 Tohjirō Azuma 11 13 Ret 8 5 18 10 11 18 18 8 7 14 4 11 7 33 13 Yūichi Nakayama 10 4 8 13 20 Ret 12 8 6 Ret 5 Ret 11 10 13 13 32 14 Kenji Hosokawa 18 8 2 18 11 Ret 14 7 13 11 21 12 7 7 15 Ret 31 15 Daiki Sasaki 9 11 Ret 12 10 DNS 15 21 15 14 Ret 18 12 5 4 5 29 16 Kazuma Kokubu 23 21 5 Ret 8 Ret 8 10 16 21 4 9 13 13 14 12 27 17 Yūki Iwasaki 8 9 9 11 3 12 11 14 14 13 12 14 18 11 16 16 19 18 Toshihiro Hinata 12 7 Ret 9 18 5 17 16 9 Ret Ret 21 10 18 19 9 19 19 Shigetomo Shimono 15 16 DNS 20 9 10 16 15 Ret 7 11 15 22 8 22 14 10 20 Hikaru Abe 20 24 15 Ret 15 14 21 12 8 22 9 13 19 19 8 18 8 21 Kōtarō Hatano 26 22 10 15 14 13 19 20 17 15 Ret 23 6 15 20 11 7 22 Igor Sushko 22 18 12 10 19 15 22 19 Ret 8 13 16 24 16 17 22 4 - Kazuumi Kobayashi 21 23 14 19 17 11 18 18 19 20 18 19 20 17 24 20 0 - Mika Kagoshima 25 20 16 21 16 Ret 24 17 23 23 16 Ret 21 20 23 24 0 - Kōta Matsui 19 17 Ret Ret 21 17 25 22 22 24 19 22 23 23 21 23 0 - Kazuki Kawamura 24 25 Ret 17 22 Ret 20 23 20 17 20 20 Ret 25 Ret 19 0 Pos. Driver FUJ SUZ MOT FUJ SUZ MOT FUJ SUG Points

Key Colour Result Gold Race winner Silver 2nd place Bronze 3rd place Green Points finish Blue Non-points finish Non-classified finish (NC) Purple Did not finish (Ret) Black Disqualified (DSQ) Excluded (EX) White Did not start (DNS) Race cancelled (C) Withdrew (WD) Blank Did not participate Bold – Pole Italics – Fastest Lap