PRESS INFORMATIONSUZUKA 2&4 RACE (Saturday April 13-Sunday April 14)

2013 Japanese Championship SUPER FORMULA Series
Round 1 in Suzuka Circuit

Tokyo, April 9, 2013—Japan Race Promotion Inc. (President: Hiroshi Shirai, Head office: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Japan)
announced today the details of the SUZUKA 2&4 RACE “2013 Japanese Championship SUPER FORMULA Series,
Round 1 in Suzuka Circuit” scheduled to take place on April 13-14 on the international race course (length= 5.807km) ofthe Suzuka Circuit in Mie Prefecture, Japan.
Building on an illustrious history extending over 17 years as Japan’s top formula racing category ever since it was firstlaunched in 1996, the just renamed Japanese Championship SUPER FORMULA Series officially starts the 2013 campaign
with Round 1 in Suzuka Circuit.
The race will extend over 51 laps of the international race course of the Suzuka circuit located in Mie Prefecture for a total
racing distance of 296.16km. A clever race strategy on when to bring the car in for tires as well as which fuel strategy to adopt
will play as important a role as pure driving skills in what is the longest round of the season.
Qualifying will take place in three knock out-style sessions from Q1 to Q3 to decide the places on the starting grid. With 19
entries in this first round of the season, the five slowest cars during the 20-minute long Q1 session will be knocked out of thenext session and given the 15th to 19th positions on the grid. After a 10 minute break, the 7-minute long Q2 will determine the9th to 14th positions on the grid in the same way. Another 10-minute break will precede the last 7-minute long Q3 session which
will decide the top 8 positions on the starting grid for Sunday’s race. There is no margin for error as any momentary lack of
speed immediately signals being knocked out of the next qualifying session.
A total of 19 drivers from 11 teams are entered in this Suzuka round. They include three champion title holders in the personsof 2007 and 2008 champion Tsugio Matsuda (Lenovo TEAM IMPUL), 2010 champion J.P. de Oliveira (Lenovo TEAMIMPUL) and 2012 champion Kazuki Nakajima (PETRONAS TEAM TOM’S). After having narrowly missed the title last year,
Koudai Tsukakoshi (HP REAL RACING) is back this season with renewed ambitions and the backing of a new team. TakuyaIzawa (DOCOMO TEAM DANDELION RACING) is another pretender to the title following last year’s 3rd place in the seasonrankings. Another big entry in this Suzuka round is fully fledged IndyCar Series driver Takuma Sato. A close eye should also
be kept on NAKAJIMA RACING and its two drivers Takashi Kogure and Daisuke Nakajima which have shown a surprisingturn of speed in the pre-season tests. All the elements are in place for another close-fought season befitting the undisputedstandard-bearer top formula racing in Asia.
Among the newcomers, all eyes will be on Ryo Hirakawa (KYGNUS SUNOCO Team LeMans) following a very successful
2012 season crowned with two champion titles in the Japanese Formula 3 Championship Series and the Porsche Carrera
Cup Japan together with the Formula Challenge Japan (FCJ) vice-champion title thrown in for good measure.
This year again, top-class drivers from around the world will be racing in the series. In this Round 1 in Suzuka circuit, thealready mentioned J.P. de Oliveira is joined by James Rossiter (PETRONAS TEAM TOM’S) and Richard Bradley (KCMG)
from the United Kingdom and Andrea Caldarelli (KYGNUS SUNOCO Team LeMans) from Italy.

2013 Championship Series: Point Allocation System■ Point Allocation SystemPosition

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

5th

6th

7th

8th

9th〜

PP

One Race per Rd.

10865

4

32

10

12 Races per Rd.

5+34

3

2.5

2

1.5

10.5

01

Note: In case of 2 races in one round, the winner of race 1 and race 2 each earns a 3-point bonus in addition to the regular number of points【General Information】
1. SUPER FORMULA
Organized by Japan Race Promotion Inc. and fully sanctioned by the Japan Automobile Federation (JAF), the JapaneseChampionship SUPER FORMULA Series traces back its origins to the Japanese Championship Formula NIPPON firstlaunched in 1996. 2013 signals a new beginning under the new SUPER FORMULA name. The series fields fully fledged
single seater racing machines befitting its status as Japan’s top formula racing category. The series will be fought on five
circuits in Japan and one circuit in the Republic of Korea over a total of seven rounds followed by an additional post seriesround.
2. Series Awards
The driver winning the year’s Series Champion title will be awarded a Series Driver’s Champion Cup and a corresponding
cash prize from Japan Race Promotion Inc., a Confederation Cup from the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan Motorsports
Promotion Diet Members Confederation and a Commissioner Cup from the Japan Tourism Agency. At the same time, theSeries Champion team will be awarded the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry’s Minister Cup.
3. Race MachineThis year’s SF13 chassis is officially supplied by Swift Engineering of the United States. Honda and Toyota are once again theofficial engine suppliers with their respective HONDA HR12E and TOYOTA RV8K 3.4-liter V8 engines while Bridgestone
officiates as the sole official tire supplier.
4. Overtake System (OTS)The Overtake System (OTS) increases maximum engine speed from 10,300rpm to 10,700rpm for 20 seconds at a time. It is
activated by the driver pushing the OTB (=OverTake Button) located on the steering wheel. The driver can activate the OTS a
maximum of 5 times over the length of the race to facilitate overtaking. When activated, lights fitted onto the rollover bar start
blinking for all to see. The car of the leader in the championship standings at the time of the race is fitted with Leader Red-type
red lights instead of the regular white lights. This Overtake System is unique to SUPER FORMULA.

2013 Japanese Championship SUPER FORMULA Series, Round 1 in Suzuka Circuit
Dates

Round

April 13-14
June 1-2
July 13-14
August 3-4
August 24-25
September 28-29
November 9-10

Round 1Round 2Round 3Round 4
Round 5
Round 6
Round 7

Suzuka Circuit
Autopolis
Fuji Speedway
Twin Ring Motegi
Inje (Republic of Korea)
Sportsland SUGO
Suzuka Circuit

November 15-17

FUJI SPRINT CUP 2013

CircuitSuzuka Circuit
Autopolis
Fuji Speedway
Twin Ring Motegi
Inje International Circuit
Sportsland SUGO
Suzuka Circuit
Fuji Speedway2013 Japanese Championship SUPER FORMULA Series, Round 1 in Suzuka Circuit Entry List
(Chassis: SF13, Tires: Bridgestone)

No.

Driver１

中嶋 一貴
Kazuki Nakajima

２

ｼﾞｪｰﾑｽ･ﾛｼﾀｰ
James Rossiter

３

安田 裕信
Hironobu Yasuda７

平川 亮
Ryo Hirakawa

８ｱﾝﾄﾞﾚｱ・ｶﾙﾀﾞﾚｯﾘ
Andrea Caldarelli

１０

塚越 広大
Koudai Tsukakoshi

Birth date
Birth place1985.1.11
Japan (AichiPrefecture)
1983.8.23
United Kingdom
1982.11.11
Japan (ShigaPrefecture)
1994.3.7
Japan(HiroshimaPrefecture)
1990.2.14
Italy
1986.11.20
Japan (TochigiPrefecture)
1987.7.29
Japan(IshikawaPrefecture)

１１

中山 友貴
Yuhki Nakayama

１５

佐藤 琢磨
Takuma Sato

1977.1.28
Japan (Tokyo)

１６

山本 尚貴
Naoki Yamamoto

1988.7.11
Japan (TochigiPrefecture

１８

ﾘﾁｬｰﾄﾞ･ﾌﾞﾗｯﾄﾞﾚｰ
Richard Bradley1991.8.17
イギリス

１９

ｼﾞｮｱｵ・ﾊﾟｵﾛ・ﾃﾞ・ｵﾘﾍﾞｲﾗ
Joao Paulo de Oliveira

1981.7.13
Brazil２０

松田 次生
Tsugio Matsuda

３１

中嶋 大祐
Daisuke Nakajima

３２

小暮 卓史
Takashi Kogure

1979.6.18
Japan (MiePrefecture)
1989.1.29
Japan (AichiPrefecture)
1980.8.1
Japan (GunmaPrefecture)

Team NameTeam Manager

EnginePETRONAS TEAM TOM'S
ペトロナス・チーム・トムス
Nobuhide TachiTOYOTA
RV8K

KONDO RACING
コンドー レーシング
Masahiko Kondoh

TOYOTARV8K

KYGNUS SUNOCO Team LeMans
キグナス スノコ チーム ルマン
Hiroyoshi Donuma

TOYOTA
RV8K

HP REAL RACING
エイチピー リアル レーシング
Katsutomo Kaneishi

HONDA
HR12E

TEAM 無限チーム 無限Nagataka Tezuka

HONDA
HR12E

KCMG
ｹｰｼｰｴﾑｼﾞｰ
Ryuji DoiTOYOTA
RV8K

Lenovo TEAM IMPUL
レノボ チーム インパル
Kazuyoshi Hoshino

TOYOTA
RV8K

NAKAJIMA RACING
ナカジマ レーシング
Satoru Nakajima

HONDA
HR12E

３８３９４０４１
６２

平手 晃平
Kohei Hirate
国本 雄資
Yuji Kunimoto
伊沢 拓也
Takuya Izawa
武藤 英紀
Hideki Mutoh嵯峨 宏紀
Koki Saga

1986.3.24
Japan (AichiPrefecture)
1990.9.12
Japan(KanagawaPrefecture)
1984.6.1
Japan (Tokyo)
1982.10.6
Japan (Tokyo)
1983.4.25
Japan (AichiPrefecture)

P.MU／CERUMO INGING
ﾌﾟﾛﾐｭｰ／ｾﾙﾓ・ｲﾝｷﾞﾝｸﾞ
Yuji Tachikawa

TOYOTA
RV8K

DOCOMO TEAM DANDELIONRACING
ﾄﾞｺﾓ ﾁｰﾑ ﾀﾞﾝﾃﾞｨﾗｲｱﾝ ﾚｰｼﾝｸﾞ
Kiyoshi Muraoka

HONDA
HR12E

TOCHIGI Le Beausset Motorsports
ﾄﾁｷﾞ ﾙ･ﾎﾞｰｾ ﾓｰﾀｰｽﾎﾟｰﾂ
Tadao Tsubomatsu

TOYOTA
RV8K- Race Details 

Official Round Name:Support Races:

Event Organization:

Sanctioning Bodies:Certification:
Patronage:【TV Broadcasting】
 JSPORTS1:

SUZUKA 2&4 RACE
2013 Japanese Championship SUPER FORMULA Series, Round 1 Suzuka Circuit
2013 MFJ SUPERBIKE All JAPAN ROAD RACE CHAMPIONSHIP Series, Round 2
2013 Japanese Formula 3 Championship Series, Round 1 and 2
Honda Sports & Eco Program CR-Z 10-liter Challenge
Automobile:
GROUP OF SPEED SPORTS (GSS), Suzuka Motor Sports Club(SMSC), Mobilityland Corporation
Motorcycle:
Motorcycle Federation of Japan (MFJ), Mobilityland Corporation
Automobile:
Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), Japan Automobile
Federation (JAF)
Motorcycle:
Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM), Motorcycle Federation ofJapan (MFJ)
Automobile:
Japan Race Promotion Inc. (JRP), Japan Formula 3 Association (JF3A)
Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan Tourism Agency, MiePrefecture, The City of Suzuka, The Suzuka F1 Japan Grand Prix Regional
Revitalization Council, Tourist Information Office Suzuka, Suzuka Chamber ofCommerce and Industry (SCCI)Live broadcast of all the races.
Re-runs of the full race broadcasts and race digest programs are also available.
Note: For the latest information on re-run and digest program schedules, kindly consult the SUPER FORMULA
official website (http://www.superformula.net/) or the J SPORTS homepage(http://www.jsports.co.jp/program_guide/month/japanese/c_month14.html).
 BS Fuji:
55-minute long SUPER FORMULA feature program covering each round of the season
Note: For the latest information on broadcasting date and time, kindly consult the SUPER FORMULA official
website (http://www.superformula.net/).
 YAHOO! GyaO!: Coverage of each SUPER FORMULA race available on demand starting at midnight 14 days
after each round.
Note: Broadcasting day and time is subject to changes without prior notice. Kindly consult the SUPER FORMULA official

website (http://www.superformula.net/) for the latest information【Tickets】●Two day passes (April 13-14) also give access on Friday April 12.
Adults: ¥3,900 (Including a one-day pass giving access to the adjacent Motopia amusement park)
Junior high school/high school students: ¥1,600 (circuit entrance only)
For further information on races/attractions and ticket purchase kindly consult the Suzuka Circuit official website at
http://www.suzukacircuit.jp/

For any further information kindly forward your inquiries to:
Japan Race Promotion Inc. (http://www.superformula.net/)
Heiando Bld. 3F, 2-3-25 Kudan Minami,Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 102-0074, Japane-mail: media@superformula.net
Tel.: 03-3237-0131
Fax.: 03-3237-0135
PR Manager: Kiyotaka Endo
Tel: 090-3401-8112
e-mail: media@jrp-inc.net