2009 Formula Challenge Japan

Last updated June 05, 2025

The 2009 Formula Challenge Japan was a multi-event motor racing championship for open-wheel formula racing cars, and the fourth 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 4 April and ended on 27 September.^[1]^[2] All championship rounds were run in support of the Formula Nippon Championship.

Honda Formula Dream Project driver Kazuki Miura [ ja ] won the championship in his second year in the series, taking four consecutive race victories to claim the title over Nissan-supported Daiki Sasaki. All race winners - Miura, Sasaki, third-placed finisher Naoya Gamou, and his Honda stablemates Makoto Kanai and Tsubasa Mekaru - won both races of their winning race weekends, with the first round at Fuji Speedway being the only round to have two different race winners.

Teams and drivers

All drivers competed in identical Tatuus FC106 chassis powered by Nismo-maintained Renault F4R engines. The entry list originally consisted of 27 entries, but would drop to 18 entries, largely due to the repercussions of the 2008 financial crisis in Japan.^[3]

Team	No.	Driver	Rounds
FTRS RAJAS FCJ Takagi Planning FTRS FTRS Team NATS [ ja ] FTRS Scholarship	1	Yūichi Nakayama	All
	2	Kazuya Ishii	All
	3	Makoto Kanai	All
	5	Tsubasa Mekaru	1–12
	6	Tobio Ohtani	All
	16	Naoya Gamou	All
	18	Ryō Ohtani	All
NDDP Autobacs FCJ NDDP Provile FCJ NDDP Azillion FCJ NDDP FCJ	4	Daiki Sasaki	All
	12	Takeshi Matsumoto	All
	14	Shōgo Suzuki	All
	15	Tatsuya Hattori	All
Avanzza × BOMEX	6	Igor Sushko	All
Nichiryo	7	Kazusa Ōuchi	All
HFDP/SRS-F/ARTA HFDP/SRS-F Scholarship	8	Tomoki Nojiri	All
	11	Ryōji Motojima	All
	18	Kazuki Miura [ ja ]	All
Dragon Knight	10	Zhu Daiwei	All
Project KK	13	Kazuki Kawamura	All
Source^[2]

Race calendar and results

All races were held in Japan in support of Formula Nippon.

Round	Circuit	Date	Pole position	Fastest lap	Winning driver
1	Fuji Speedway, Oyama	4 April	Naoya Gamou	Daiki Sasaki	Daiki Sasaki
2	Fuji Speedway, Oyama	5 April	Daiki Sasaki	Tsubasa Mekaru	Naoya Gamou
3	Suzuka Circuit, Suzuka	16 May	Tomoki Nojiri	Tomoki Nojiri	Makoto Kanai
4	Suzuka Circuit, Suzuka	17 May	Takeshi Matsumoto	Tomoki Nojiri	Makoto Kanai
5	Twin Ring Motegi, Motegi	30 May	Daiki Sasaki	Daiki Sasaki	Daiki Sasaki
6	Twin Ring Motegi, Motegi	31 May	Daiki Sasaki	Tomoki Nojiri	Daiki Sasaki
7	Fuji Speedway, Oyama	27 June	Tsubasa Mekaru	Tsubasa Mekaru	Kazuki Miura
8	Fuji Speedway, Oyama	28 June	Tsubasa Mekaru	Kazuya Ishii	Kazuki Miura
9	Suzuka Circuit, Suzuka	11 July	Kazuki Miura	Kazuki Miura	Kazuki Miura
10	Suzuka Circuit, Suzuka	12 July	Kazuki Miura	Kazuki Miura	Kazuki Miura
11	Twin Ring Motegi, Motegi	8 August	Kazuki Miura	Kazuya Ishii	Tsubasa Mekaru
12	Twin Ring Motegi, Motegi	9 August	Kazuki Miura	Daiki Sasaki	Tsubasa Mekaru
13	Sportsland SUGO, Murata	26 September	Naoya Gamou	Yūichi Nakayama	Naoya Gamou
14	Sportsland SUGO, Murata	27 September	Naoya Gamou	Yūichi Nakayama	Naoya Gamou

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		MOT		FUJ		SUZ		MOT		SUG		Points
1	Kazuki Miura	9	5	5	9	2	3	1	1	1	1	2	3	6	6	76
2	Daiki Sasaki	1	4	6	4	1	1	2	6	3	4	6	4	5	3	70
3	Naoya Gamou	2	1	2	12	3	10	8	4	4	3	5	7	1	1	65
4	Yūichi Nakayama	3	3	14	Ret	6	7	3	2	11	5	18	8	2	2	41
5	Tomoki Nojiri	12	18	3	3	7	Ret	7	11	2	2	4	10	3	4	39
6	Makoto Kanai	8	6	1	1	9	2	12	5	5	6	8	5	7	7	35
7	Tsubasa Mekaru	Ret	17	17	10	5	5	11	15	6	16	1	1			29
8	Kazuya Ishii	Ret	2	7	Ret	11	11	10	13	7	8	3	2	13	Ret	21
9	Takeshi Matsumoto	6	8	4	2	10	4	4	7	15	17	9	17	4	13	21
10	Ryō Ohtani	5	9	11	5	13	9	5	3	13	9	7	6	8	5	14
11	Tobio Ohtani	13	12	8	7	4	6	6	8	8	7	13	9	11	9	5
12	Kazuki Kawamura	4	7	18	Ret	17	Ret	15	16	Ret	10	11	14	10	12	3
13	Zhu Daiwei	7	10	15	6	8	8	Ret	12	17	11	15	12	12	14	1
-	Shōgo Suzuki	16	11	10	8	Ret	15	13	14	14	12	10	11	15	8	0
-	Tatsuya Hattori	10	16	12	Ret	16	16	9	9	10	18	16	13	9	10	0
-	Ryōji Motojima	11	13	9	13	12	13	Ret	10	9	15	12	Ret	Ret	15	0
-	Kazusa Ōuchi	14	15	16	11	15	14	16	17	16	13	17	16	14	11	0
-	Igor Sushko	15	14	13	Ret	14	12	14	18	12	14	14	15	Ret	16	0
Pos.	Driver	FUJ		SUZ		MOT		FUJ		SUZ		MOT		SUG		Points

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

Bold – Pole
Italics – Fastest Lap

References

↑ "2009 Formula Challenge Japan - rounds". Super Formula | Formula Challenge Japan official website (in Japanese). Retrieved 2023-11-10.
1 2 "2009 Formula Challenge Japan - Rd. 9 Result". Super Formula | Formula Challenge Japan official website (in Japanese). Retrieved 2023-11-10.
↑ Ōuchi, Kazusa (13 March 2009). "18人". Kazusaのブログ (in Japanese). Ameba.jp . Retrieved 4 January 2024.

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[1] "2009 Formula Challenge Japan - rounds". Super Formula | Formula Challenge Japan official website (in Japanese). Retrieved 2023-11-10.

[:0-2] 1 2 "2009 Formula Challenge Japan - Rd. 9 Result". Super Formula | Formula Challenge Japan official website (in Japanese). Retrieved 2023-11-10.

[3] Ōuchi, Kazusa (13 March 2009). "18人". Kazusaのブログ (in Japanese). Ameba.jp . Retrieved 4 January 2024.

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