Return of the Kyojo Cup - The Championship Intensifies
Kyojo Cup's round two at Fuji brought new poles, new winners, and a title fight that's refusing to settle.
The Kyojo Cup returned last weekend for the second round of the 2026 season. With the series’ first return to Fuji Speedway after the season opener, everything was still very much all to play for and that became immediately apparent across every session over the course of the weekend. From Championship shakeups to super overtakes and on-track clashes, the all-female Japanese racing series had a little of everything going for it this time around.
Saito Takes Pole in Qualifying
Qualifying in the Kyojo Cup is unlike that in most other series because the entire Championship is held at the same venue. While conditions naturally change from one round to the next and the circuit itself is constantly evolving, the fundamentals do not and so the teams and drivers are able to hone in on the particularities of the circuit and measure their progress in a substantive way.
Aimi Saito qualified in Pole Position for the second round of the Kyojo Cup at the Fuji Speedway in Japan. In doing so, she bettered her previous best qualification position from the first round of the series, where she lined up on the grid in third. Whereas before, Saito had been 0.378s off the pace, she now led the field with a gap of 0.021s to second place. There are almost always fine margins in qualifying in motorsport, so being able to find those tiny increments and use them to your advantage is vital, and the difference it can make is clear.
Miki Onaga lined up alongside her in second place, improving on her own best prior result of sixth. Miura, Tomishita and Sato rounded out the top five. All three had previously qualified in the top five and so were able to display early signs of consistency that will be worth keeping an eye on as the season progresses. Miura, Onaga, Burton and Ciconte also put on great displays of consistency with all three in the top ten for both rounds of qualifying.
Paige Raddatz was the most improved driver from those in the top ten. She’d qualified down in fifteenth place last time out, and this time would start the race from seventh place. It would be the start of a stellar weekend for the Australian as she went from strength to strength.
Miura Takes Home the Sprint Race Win
The Sprint Race got off to an exciting start as pole sitter Saito battled immediately with Onaga and Miura behind her. The opening tour of Fuji Speedway wasn’t even halfway complete by the time Miura had wrestled the lead away from Saito and from there on out, the Japanese driver was able to keep a hold of it until the chequered flag was waived.
Further back in the pack on the first lap, Shimono made an excellent move at the Dunlop corner to move up into fifth position. This overtake was her latest in a quick and sharp melee that put her up four positions from where she started the race. That first round in Fuji was already proving beneficial for some of the drivers as that prior experience will surely have helped drivers such as Shimono more accurately judge where overtakes would be possible.
While Miura would ultimately retain the lead for the duration of the race, doing so wasn’t without its challenges. Miura and Saito battled for the lead at the start of lap four and continued this fight onto lap five, already eking out the fight for the podium positions for longer than we got in the first round of the Championship. But the latter couldn’t get around and instead, lost second place to Tomishita and then nearly third to Onaga behind her, whom she then succumbed to at the start of lap six.
Saito set the fastest lap of the race on lap eight and while you don’t get any points for this achievement, it’s always good to have bragging rights and a definitive way to demonstrate your speed, especially when you’re chasing down those ahead for a place on the podium.
Miura and Tomishita came together at the first turn on the start of the penultimate lap in what was an unfortunate racing incident that took Tomishita out of podium contention. Further back, there was trouble for Pinkowski, too, as she spun off the track before rejoining, albeit a good number of places back.
The battle for the lead then went down to the final lap as Miura now had to fight Saito hard for what would be her first win of the season. Miura put on some great defensive manoeuvres and was able to keep Saito behind, crossing the line 0.529s ahead of her with Sato not far behind her as she clinched third place. Miura went from a best finish of P5 in round one to a race win in the Sprint, while Saito made it three for three in terms of podium appearances at that point in the season, but without a win.
Onaga and Shimono would then round out the top five. Shimono had a best result of P5, while Hirakawa’s tenth-place finish was a welcome bounce back after a torrid time in the opening round of the season.
Ciconte finished in sixth with Burton, Sasaki, Matsui and Hirakawa completing the top ten.
Raddatz finished in seventh place on the road but received a penalty that dropped her down to P11. While frustrating, this was still her best finish so far this season and there was clear potential for more - and more would come for the Australian in Sunday’s Final Race.
Final Race
The Final Race was, if anything, more dramatic than the Sprint from Saturday. Shimona got past Onaga into Dunlop Corner, a good overtaking spot across every race so far this season and one that the drivers are becoming more and more aware of, in the first part of a race-long duel between the pair that would draw others into the mix too.
Behind them, Raddatz and Ito made up the most positions across the opening two laps, up three and four places respectively to eighth and twelfth. Onaga then got back past Shimona at the start of lap three.
Out in front, Miura, Saito and Sato had a close wheel-to-wheel battle for the lead at the start of lap four, with Miura somehow staying out in front for the time being. Sato then got past Saito on the same lap before the pair switched back again at the start of the fifth lap in some great cat and mouse style action where roles were reversed from one moment to the next.
Onaga then managed to overtake Sato at the start of lap six down into the first turn at the Fuji Speedway.
Shimono and Sato ended up being so busy fighting each other that it gave Ciconte the perfect opportunity to sublimely move past Shimono and up into fifth place in what was the overtake of the weekend.
Back at the front of the field, Saito managed to take the lead from Miura into the first turn at the start of lap eight. Onaga then tried getting past Miura too with the pair making contact and Onaga briefly becoming airborne before thumping back down to Earth.
Ciconte and Shimono made contact too as the latter tried getting back past the former at the start of lap eleven and went off the track with damage to her car. Sasaki got caught up in the melee, too, and would also find herself sadly out of the race. Prior to this Sasaki had finished every race so far this season inside the top ten so this DNF was most unfortunate for the Japanese driver.
The Safety Car came out as a result and the race would end under these conditions.
Saito would thus win the race - her first this season after having finished in fifth, third and second in the past three races. She also got the fastest lap of the race too, achieved on lap ten.
Onaga and Sato rounded out the podium positions with their best results of the season so far. Ciconte held onto fourth place with Tomishita rounding out the top five. Raddatz was another driver to have her best result of the season as she finished in an excellent sixth place with Burton, Matsui, Kanemoto and Shiraishi completing the top ten. The latter three all also achieved their best results of the season so far too. The progression that each of these drivers displayed from one round to the next is fascinating and reiterates how intriguing a series like the Kyojo Cup is.
Championship Standings
Saito’s win in the Final Race propelled her to the top of the Championship Standings with forty-nine points, eight points clear of Tomishita in second. Ciconte’s consistency has rewarded her thus far as she sits in third overall, just three points behind Tomishita and one point ahead of Onaga in fourth.
Raddatz, Kanemoto and Shiraishi will all walk away from this second round with smiles on their faces as they were all able to get their first points of the season with Raddatz moving up into ninth place overall as a result, equal on points with Matsui and just four points behind Burton.
Seven drivers have yet to score this season but given the nature of the series on display so far, it seems likely that at some point, each driver will have at least one moment in the limelight.
Final Thoughts
The Championship remains wide open with no one driver immediately breaking away with the lead. Consistency, as in any series, will be key to the eventual victor and even just four races in, only four of the twenty drivers have been able to score points in every race. It would be best to keep an eye on these four in particular then - Saito, Ciconte, Onaga and Sato - as they quietly build their bids for the title. But with the rapid improvement from the drivers from one round to the next, it wouldn’t be unreasonable to anticipate a resurgence at some point later on in the season. If and when that occurs, we could be in for some truly breathtaking racing around the Fuji Speedway.
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The Kyojo Cup returns September 5th.