For the third round of the MFJ All Japan Road Race Championship, which was Director Ito’s hometown and held at Sportsland SUGO (Miyagi) on May 25-26, 300 of our employees and their families came to support the race.
All classes raced, but Kazuma Watanabe in the ST1000 class had to miss the race due to his rehabilitation from an injury.
In Saturday's JSB1000 class Race 1, Nozane got a good start from 4th on the grid, took the inside on the first corner, and quickly took the lead. He was passed by Ducati rider Mizuno on the straight entering lap 4, and then by two Yamahas on lap 8 to drop him to 4th. After 22 laps, he took the checkered flag in 4th place.
In Sunday‘s JSB1000 class Race 2, he was 3rd on the opening lap and dropped to 4th on the second lap, and had to fight with Takahashi who was close behind. In the 16 laps of the race, he dropped back to 5th, but on the last lap he passed to finish back to 4th—finishing both just short of the podium.
In the ST1000 class, Sakumoto started the race from 6th on the grid, and moved up to 5th on the 2nd lap, chasing the 2nd place group for several laps until he crashed on lap 12. He restarted but was forced to pull out of the race.
In the J-GP3 class, Burupa and Tanachat both set personal bests and finished while earning points, with Burupa in 11th and Tanachat in 14th.