2011 Formula Challenge Japan

2011 Formula Challenge Japan

Drivers' champion: Takamoto Katsuta

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The 2011 Formula Challenge Japan was a multi-event motor racing championship for open-wheel formula racing cars, and the sixth 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 23 April and ended on 6 November. Three race weekends were run in support of Formula Nippon, with the October round at Suzuka being held in support of the Formula One Japanese Grand Prix.

Toyota junior Takamoto Katsuta won the championship by a five-point margin after winning three of the four races in the final round at Motegi, with fellow Toyota drivers Ryō Hirakawa and Kazuya Ishii coming second and third in the points standings. Kazuki Hiramine finished fourth as the highest Honda-supported driver after taking three wins and the championship lead early on. Nissan junior driver Tsubasa Kondō and Yūya Motojima completed the top six, who were the only drivers to take race wins or pole positions throughout the season.

Teams and drivers

Team No. Driver Rounds FTRS Scholarship FTRS Clarion FCJ LUCK FTRS FTRS FCJ FTRS K-office FCJ 1 Shintarō Kawabata All 4 Ryō Hirakawa All 9 Takamoto Katsuta All 10 Hiroki Shinotani All 11 Kazuya Ishii All 19 Syunsuke Matsuzaki All HFDP/SRS-F/Kotira R HFDP/SRS-F/ARTA 2 Shinnosuke Yamada All 8 Yūya Motojima All 17 Kazuki Hiramine All 18 Shōta Kiyohara All NDDP Maruso NDDP FCJ 3 Tsubasa Kondō All 12 Mitsunori Takaboshi All 16 Zhu Daiwei All Dream Max FCJ 5 Kōhei Sutō All Meikyō 602 Palm Town Garage 6 Kunihiro Iwatsuki All Houka Racing with Dunlop 7 Ryō Ogawa All AsT Team SBT 13 Ryūnosuke Shibata All Wings Garage 14 Takanori Yamabe All ALT Team Naoki 15 Keishi Niki All Source

Race calendar and results

All races were held in Japan. Rounds 3–4, 9, and 8–14 were run in support of the Formula Nippon Championship, and Rounds 11–12 were held as support races for the 2011 Japanese Grand Prix, a round of the 2011 Formula One World Championship.

Rounds 8 and 9 were originally scheduled to be held on 3–4 September at Suzuka, but were cancelled due to adverse weather conditions caused by Tropical Storm Talas. Round 8 was moved to the final race weekend at Motegi.

Round	Circuit	Date	Pole position	Fastest lap	Winning driver
1	Fuji Speedway, Oyama	23 April	Kazuya Ishii	Yūya Motojima	Takamoto Katsuta
2		24 April	Tsubasa Kondō	Kazuki Hiramine	Kazuki Hiramine
3	Suzuka Circuit, Suzuka	14 May	Kazuya Ishii	Kazuki Hiramine	Kazuya Ishii
4		15 May	Kazuki Hiramine	Kazuki Hiramine	Kazuki Hiramine
5	Fuji Speedway, Oyama	11 June	Kazuki Hiramine	Kazuki Hiramine	Kazuki Hiramine
6			Kazuki Hiramine	Yūya Motojima	Ryō Hirakawa
7		12 June	Yūya Motojima	Yūya Motojima	Yūya Motojima
9	Suzuka Circuit, Suzuka	4 September	Race cancelled
10	Suzuka Circuit, Suzuka	8 October	Kazuya Ishii	Takamoto Katsuta	Kazuya Ishii
11		9 October		Takamoto Katsuta	Takamoto Katsuta
8	Twin Ring Motegi, Motegi	5 November	Ryō Hirakawa	Mitsunori Takaboshi	Tsubasa Kondō
12				Takamoto Katsuta	Takamoto Katsuta
13		6 November		Takamoto Katsuta	Takamoto Katsuta
14				Takamoto Katsuta	Takamoto Katsuta

Championship standings

Drivers' Championship

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

1	2	3	4	5	6	PP	FL
10	7	5	3	2	1	1	1

Pos. Driver FUJ SUZ FUJ SUZ SUZ MOT Points 1 Takamoto Katsuta 1 3 3 4 19 7 11 C 3 1 3 1 1 1 78 2 Ryō Hirakawa 2 2 7 3 2 1 3 C 4 5 2 3 2 2 73 3 Kazuya Ishii Ret Ret 1 6 3 2 2 C 1 2 5 4 3 16 60 4 Kazuki Hiramine 5 1 15 1 1 6 7 C 8 9 7 15 5 4 45 5 Tsubasa Kondō 4 9 6 5 4 4 4 C 16 7 1 2 4 9 36 6 Yūya Motojima 16 6 2 7 5 3 1 C 5 4 6 8 7 12 35 7 Mitsunori Takaboshi 3 16 4 2 6 14 5 C 6 8 19 10 10 5 22 8 Shinnosuke Yamada 8 8 9 10 10 8 8 C 2 3 10 7 8 7 12 9 Shōta Kiyohara Ret 4 8 8 8 9 Ret C 11 6 4 6 6 11 9 10 Keishi Niki 6 Ret 10 11 13 Ret 14 C 10 14 11 16 14 3 6 11 Hiroki Shinotani 13 10 5 17 9 5 6 C 7 12 12 Ret 13 10 5 12 Shintarō Kawabata 14 7 14 16 14 Ret 13 C Ret 16 9 5 11 DNS 2 13 Syunsuke Matsuzaki 9 5 Ret 9 11 15 12 C 13 15 15 11 12 Ret 2 14 Zhu Daiwei Ret DNS 11 Ret 12 12 9 C 9 11 8 9 9 6 1 - Takanori Yamabe 7 13 13 12 7 10 10 C 12 13 13 Ret 15 8 0 - Kōhei Sutō 11 12 16 15 18 Ret 17 C Ret 10 16 14 Ret Ret 0 - Ryūnosuke Shibata 10 15 Ret 14 16 Ret 16 C 14 Ret 17 Ret 17 14 0 - Ryō Ogawa 15 11 12 13 17 11 15 C DNS 17 14 12 16 13 0 - Kunihiro Iwatsuki 12 14 17 18 15 13 18 C 15 18 18 13 18 15 0 Pos. Driver FUJ SUZ FUJ SUZ SUZ MOT 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