1998 Formula Nippon Championship

1998 Formula Nippon Championship

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1999

Related series:
1998 International Formula 3000 Championship

The 1998 Formula Nippon Championship was the twenty-sixth season of premier Japanese single-seater racing, and the third under the Formula Nippon name and Japan Race Promotion (JRP) management. The series was scheduled to take place over ten rounds, though one round at Fuji Speedway was cancelled due to weather, leaving only nine rounds at five venues. Team LeMans driver Satoshi Motoyama won his first career championship.

14 different teams, 29 different drivers, and three different chassis series. It was the first season in which Mugen supplied engines to all teams, though open tuning was still permitted. As was the case in 1997, each round saw a Special Stage after the original qualifying. The best six qualifiers had to compete in a separate session for the pole.

Teams and drivers

All teams used tyres supplied by Bridgestone and Mugen MF308 engines.

Team	#	Driver	Chassis	Rounds
Shionogi Team Nova	1	Masami Kageyama	Lola T97/51	All
	2	Ralph Firman Jr.	Lola T96/51	All
Asahi Kiko Sports	3	Atsushi Kawamoto	Reynard 96D	All
Team 5ZIGEN	5	Marc Goossens	Reynard 97D	All
	6	Shigekazu Wakisaka	Reynard 96D	All
LEMONed Racing Team LeMans	7	Norberto Fontana	Reynard 97D	All
	8	Satoshi Motoyama		All
Cosmo Oil Racing Team Cerumo	11	Hideki Noda	Lola T98/51	All
	12	Akira Iida	Lola T96/52	3–10
Jaccs Mooncraft M.S.P	14	Ryō Michigami	Reynard 96D	All
Team TMS	17	Masahiko Kondō	Reynard 97D	All
	18	Tsuyoshi Takahashi		1–2
		Yuji Tachikawa		3–10
Maziora Team Impul	19	Takuya Kurosawa	Lola T98/51	All
	20	Masahiko Kageyama	Lola T96/52	All
Be Brides Racing	21	Tetsuya Tanaka	Lola T95/50	All
	22	Akira Ishikawa	Lola T96/52	All
Kyoetsu Stellar Stellar International	35	Tokiyasu Soda	Reynard 96D	1
		Dilantha Malagamuwa		7–9
Takagi B-1 Racing	36	Tetsuji Tamanaka	Lola T96/51	All
	37	Masao Yamada	Lola T95/50 Lola T94/50	2–5
Autobacs Racing Team Aguri	55	Katsutomo Kaneishi	Lola T98/51	All
	56	Juichi Wakisaka	Lola T97/51	All
Team LeyJun	62	Shinsuke Shibahara	Reynard 95D Reynard 96D	All
	63	"Osamu"	Reynard 95D Reynard 97D	1, 4–10
		Taichiro Oonishi		2–3
PIAA Nakajima Racing	64	Koji Yamanishi	Reynard 97D	1–4, 6–10
		Tsugio Matsuda		5
	65	Tom Coronel		All

^ Masao Yamada died from a subarachnoid hemorrhage on 12 July 1998. ^[1]

Race calendar and results

All races were held in Japan.

Race	Track	Date	Pole position	Fastest Race Lap	Winning driver	Winning team
1	Suzuka Circuit	19 April	Ralph Firman Jr.	Tom Coronel	Masahiko Kageyama	Maziora Team Impul
2	Mine Circuit	17 May	Juichi Wakisaka	Satoshi Motoyama	Satoshi Motoyama	LEMONed Racing Team LeMans
3	Fuji Speedway	31 May	Satoshi Motoyama	Katsutomo Kaneishi	Satoshi Motoyama	LEMONed Racing Team LeMans
4	Twin Ring Motegi	14 June	Norberto Fontana	Hideki Noda	Juichi Wakisaka	Autobacs Racing Team Aguri
5	Suzuka Circuit	5 July	Masahiko Kageyama	Juichi Wakisaka	Masahiko Kageyama	Maziora Team Impul
6	Sportsland SUGO	2 August	Masami Kageyama	Masami Kageyama	Masami Kageyama	Shionogi Team Nova
7	Fuji Speedway	30 August	Takuya Kurosawa	Race cancelled
8	Mine Circuit	20 September	Hideki Noda	Satoshi Motoyama	Satoshi Motoyama	LEMONed Racing Team LeMans
9	Fuji Speedway	18 October	Masami Kageyama	Hideki Noda	Norberto Fontana	LEMONed Racing Team LeMans
10	Suzuka Circuit	29 November	Satoshi Motoyama	Masami Kageyama	Masami Kageyama	Shionogi Team Nova

Round 7 at Fuji Speedway was cancelled due to weather conditions.

Championship standings

Drivers' Championship

Scoring system

Position	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th
Points	10	6	4	3	2	1

Rank	Name	SUZ	MIN	FUJ	MOT	SUZ	SGO	FUJ	MIN	FUJ	SUZ	Points
1	Satoshi Motoyama	Ret	1	1	2	Ret	4	C	1	2	Ret	45
2	Masami Kageyama	2	10	Ret	3	3	1	C	6	4	1	38
3	Juichi Wakisaka	Ret	2	Ret	1	4	Ret	C	Ret	Ret	2	25
4	Norberto Fontana	3	Ret	6	Ret	Ret	Ret	C	2	1	8	21
5	Masahiko Kageyama	1	Ret	Ret	8	1	Ret	C	Ret	Ret	6	21
6	Marc Goossens	6	4	Ret	Ret	2	Ret	C	3	Ret	4	17
7	Katsutomo Kaneishi	4	5	2	Ret	Ret	7	C	5	10	Ret	13
8	Ralph Firman Jr.	12	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret	2	C	4	3	7	13
9	Ryō Michigami	7	3	4	9	Ret	Ret	C	Ret	Ret	3	11
10	Hideki Noda	5	Ret	5	6	Ret	3	C	Ret	9	Ret	9
11	Tom Coronel	8	6	Ret	4	5	5	C	Ret	Ret	14	8
12	Takuya Kurosawa	Ret	Ret	3	Ret	Ret	Ret	C	Ret	Ret	5	6
13	Yuji Tachikawa			9	5	Ret	Ret	C	Ret	Ret	9	2
14	Akira Iida			8	Ret	Ret	9	C	Ret	5	12	2
15	Tsugio Matsuda					6						1
16	Koji Yamanishi	Ret	7	Ret	Ret		6	C	Ret	Ret	11	1
17	Tetsuya Tanaka	Ret	Ret	7	Ret	Ret	11	C	Ret	6	16	1
18	Masahiko Kondō	9	8	11	10	7	8	C	7	7	Ret	0
19	Shigekazu Wakisaka	10	Ret	10	7	Ret	Ret	C	Ret	Ret	10	0
20	Akira Ishikawa	Ret	Ret	Ret	11	9	10	C	Ret	8	15	0
21	Tetsuji Tamanaka	Ret	11	14	13	Ret	Ret	C	8	Ret	17	0
22	"Osamu"	13			Ret	Ret	13	C	9	Ret	18	0
23	Atsushi Kawamoto	Ret	9	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret	C	Ret	Ret	13	0
24	Shinsuke Shibahara	11	Ret	12	12	Ret	Ret	C	10	Ret	Ret	0
25	Dilantha Malagamuwa							C	Ret	12		0
26	Taichiro Oonishi		Ret	13								0
27	Tsuyoshi Takahashi	14	Ret									0
28	Masao Yamada		Ret	15	Ret	DNQ						0
29	Tokiyasu Soda	Ret										0

Teams' Championship

Rank	Name	Car	SUZ	MIN	FUJ	MOT	SUZ	SGO	FUJ	MIN	FUJ	SUZ	Points
1	LEMONed LeMans	7	3	Ret	6	Ret	Ret	Ret	C	2	1	8	66
		8	Ret	1	1	2	Ret	4	C	1	2	Ret
2	Shionogi Nova	1	2	10	Ret	3	3	1	C	6	4	1	51
		2	12	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret	2	C	4	3	7
3	ARTA	55	4	5	2	Ret	Ret	7	C	5	10	Ret	38
		56	Ret	2	Ret	1	4	Ret	C	Ret	Ret	2
4	Maziora Impul	19	Ret	Ret	3	Ret	Ret	Ret	C	Ret	Ret	5	27
		20	1	Ret	Ret	8	1	Ret	C	Ret	Ret	6
5	5ZIGEN	5	6	4	Ret	Ret	2	Ret	C	3	Ret	4	14
		6	10	Ret	10	7	Ret	Ret	C	Ret	Ret	10
6	Jaccs Mooncraft	14	7	3	4	9	Ret	Ret	C	Ret	Ret	3	14
7	Cosmo Oil Cerumo	11	5	Ret	5	6	Ret	3	C	Ret	9	Ret	11
		12			8	Ret	Ret	9	C	Ret	5	12
8	PIAA Nakajima	64	Ret	7	Ret	Ret	6	6	C	Ret	Ret	11	10
		65	8	6	Ret	4	5	5	C	Ret	Ret	14
9	Team TMS	17	9	8	11	10	7	8	C	7	7	Ret	2
		18	14	Ret	9	5	Ret	Ret	C	Ret	Ret	9
10	Be Brides	21	Ret	Ret	7	Ret	Ret	11	C	Ret	6	16	1
		22	Ret	Ret	Ret	11	9	10	C	Ret	8	15
11	Asahi Kiko Sports	3	Ret	9	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret	C	Ret	Ret	13	0
12	Takagi B-1 Racing	36	Ret	11	14	13	Ret	Ret	C	8	Ret	17	0
		37		Ret	15	Ret	DNQ
13	Team LeyJun	62	11	Ret	12	12	Ret	Ret	C	10	Ret	Ret	0
		63	13	Ret	13	Ret	Ret	13	C	9	Ret	18
14	Kyoetsu Stellar Stellar International	35	Ret						C	Ret	12		0

References

1. "FN_NEWS:訃報:山田政夫選手急逝". モータースポーツフォーラム (in Japanese). 1998-07-13. Retrieved 2020-12-08.

External links

• 1998 Japanese Championship Formula Nippon