Jin Sawada takes second Speed King Tour win

Round five of the 2016 Speed King Tour was held at the Keitune Racing Speedway, host of this year’s JMRCA Japan Electric Touring Nationals. As the race was the unofficial warm-up, many racers used the event to get some laps under their belts for the nationals at the end of July. For this race the Stock class was also run with 13.5T motors over the usual 17.5T machines to allow for better comparability for the open class racers that have to use 13.5T motors at the nationals. During practice, Yokomo driver Yugo Nagashima showed his speed in the Modified class with team mate Jin Sawada being on the same pace as Yugo. After the practice, most drivers also decided to use the Rush 44 hand-out tyre that will be used at the nationals. Overall the qualifier were pretty challenging with changing track conditions, making setup work a tough task. Ultimately Jin Sawada made the best out of the conditions, taking the TQ while Yugo only qualified for the 7 spot on the grid, suffering set-up issues.

The start of the A-main went trouble-free with Jin taking the lead, followed and hardly chased by runner-up after the qualifiers, Yusuke Goto (ARC). Yusuke tried to get past but an error-free run of Jin allowed him to take the win – only his second after his inaugural Speed King Tour victory in 2015. Yusuke came in second, only 0.2 seconds down with young Yokomo driver Takahiro Namura finishing in third.

In the Stock class A-final, TQ driver Kota Kawakami dominated the whole 5-minute encounter from tone to tone. Kyoichi Matsumoto finished second and Kiyoto Kanno rounded out the top 3 result. The next round of the Speed King Tour 2016 will be held at the RC Stadium Sodegaura outdoor tarmac track on the 25th of September.

Source: Speed King Tour [facebook.com]