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 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 2007–2008 global financial crisis in Japan.^[3]

Team No. Driver Rounds FTRS RAJAS FCJ Takagi Planning FTRS FTRS Team NATS 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 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		5 April	Daiki Sasaki	Tsubasa Mekaru	Naoya Gamou
3	Suzuka Circuit, Suzuka	16 May	Tomoki Nojiri	Tomoki Nojiri	Makoto Kanai
4		17 May	Takeshi Matsumoto	Tomoki Nojiri	Makoto Kanai
5	Twin Ring Motegi, Motegi	30 May	Daiki Sasaki	Daiki Sasaki	Daiki Sasaki
6		31 May	Daiki Sasaki	Tomoki Nojiri	Daiki Sasaki
7	Fuji Speedway, Oyama	27 June	Tsubasa Mekaru	Tsubasa Mekaru	Kazuki Miura
8		28 June	Tsubasa Mekaru	Kazuya Ishii	Kazuki Miura
9	Suzuka Circuit, Suzuka	11 July	Kazuki Miura	Kazuki Miura	Kazuki Miura
10		12 July	Kazuki Miura	Kazuki Miura	Kazuki Miura
11	Twin Ring Motegi, Motegi	8 August	Kazuki Miura	Kazuya Ishii	Tsubasa Mekaru
12		9 August	Kazuki Miura	Daiki Sasaki	Tsubasa Mekaru
13	Sportsland SUGO, Murata	26 September	Naoya Gamou	Yūichi Nakayama	Naoya Gamou
14		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 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

References