2002 Japan (wing cars)

J-SERIES 2002 TO TEBU SATOH

January 6 - Our info on Japanese slot-racing remains restricted to the J-Slot Series, in principle 48 wing car races per year, all contested on the last Blue King which survived in Japan. Here week after week the same 8 racers are involved in a championship over 4 series of 12 races each. In 2002 no less than 8 races were to be cancelled, so that total number of races was restricted to 40. Of them 10 were won by Tebu Sato (among them 5 during the first season), 10 by Akitani and 10 by Masaru Sasaki. The remaining 10 wins went to Noboru Hanada (4), Morio Hashimoto (4) and Takao Kurara (2). Jiro Takeuchi won no race in 2002 but was the best qualifier with no less than 12 poles, followed by Tebu Satoh (8 poles), Noboru Hanada (7 poles), Akitani (6 poles), Morio Hashimoto (3 poles), Masaru Sasaki and Takao Kurata (each 2 poles). The rest of the world is good informed about the Japanese wing car races, since Akitani publishes every Monday the results in English on the J-Slot web site. We have no info on the several model car races contested in the Land of the Rising Sun, also the home land of the famous PlaFit chassis. All other web sites treating this races are uniquely in Japanese, thus unreadable for us. In the combined standings Tebu Satoh is the overall winner, 17 points ahead of last year's winner Akitani, and 35 points ahead of Masaru Sasaki.

In earlier years Japanese wing car racers were regularly seen at the USRA Nats, where Tebu Satoh won in 1992 the G7 Semi-Pro!. The last years the Japanese wing car racers were no longer seen in international contests. Although Satoh was invited at the 2002 Revenge Race in Seinäjoki (SF) at IMCA's charges he didn't show, probably due to communication problems. We'll try to improve our relations with the Japanese racers. Perhaps Satoh & Akitani could show at the 2003 USRA Nats at IMCA's charges. This will be discussed by IMCA's Council of Twelve.

Final Standings after 20 rounds
1. Tebu SATOH 240 pts 10 wins 8 TQs
2. AKITANI 223 pts 10 wins 6 TQs
3. Masaru SASAKI 205 pts 10 wins 2 TQs
4. Noboru HANADA 171 pts 4 wins 7 TQs
5. Jiro TAKEUCHI 149 pts 0 wins 12 TQs
6. Takao KURATA 122 pts 2 wins 2 TQs
7. Morio HASHIMOTO 105 pts 4 wins 3 TQs
8. Hitoshi KUMAKURA 26 pts 0 wins 0 TQs

Pictures & Results thanks to J-Slot web site (Akitani) - TOP LEFT: Akitani, BOTTOM RIGHT: Tebu Satoh receives his prize from trach owner Tamo Furuhashi

Used chassis are ProSlot Tripods, Slick-7 Vampires and even a ProSlot Perimeter. Motors haved Koford or ProSlot cans and ProSlot or Koford armatures at a 39/9 or 39/8 gear ratio. Tires are all Alphas. Track record at the Riverside Raceway Blue King is 2"508, realised by Akitani on September 7, 2002. Last important international result by one of the Japanese wing car racers was the second place obtained by Morio Hashimoto at the 1998 Alpha Holiday Classic G27, where he was beaten by Doug Gant. The J-Series is since 1999 an IOC-event. The IOC-list has been updated with the 2002 results. [JPVR]

2002 4th Series (Oct.~Dec.) Final Point Standing
Pos Name Total #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7 #8 #9 #10 #11 #12 Won TQ
1 Akitani 52 0+8+1 2+3 - 2+8+1 C C 2+5 2+5 C 0+8 0+5 C 3 -
2 Noboru Hanada 39 1+1 0+2 2+3 5+0 A A 0+8+1 0+3 A 5+3 5+0 A 1 3
3 Tebu Satoh 38 2+3 1+8+1 5+5 - N N 0+2 1+8+1 N - 0+1 N 2 1
4 Masaru Sasaki 33 0+2 0+0 0+8+1 0+2 C C 0+3 0+1 C 1+5+1 0+8+1 C 2 -
5 Morio Hashimoto 21 0+5 0+5 - 0+5 E E - 5+0 E 0+1 0+0 E - 1
5 Jiro Takeuchi 21 5+0 - 1+2 1+3 L L 5+0 - L 0+0 2+2 L - 2
7 Takao Kurata 20 - 5+1 0+1 0+1 E E 1+1 0+2 E 2+2 1+3 E - 1
8 Hitoshi Kumakura 0 - 0+0 0+0 - D D - - D - - D - -
2002 3rd Series (Jul.~Sep.) Final Point Standing
Pos Name Best9 #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7 #8 #9 #10 #11 #12 Won TQ
1 Masaru Sasaki 73(75) 1+10 0+5 5+2 0+5 5+8 0+5 C C 2+6 2+8 0+8+1 0+2 4 2
2 Tebu Satoh 58 2+4 2+0 1+8+1 5+1 - 2+8 A A 1+4 0+5+1 1+2 5+5 2 2
3 Akitani 57 0+1+1 5+8+1 - - 2+5+1 5+2+1+2 N N 5+0 5+2 - 2+8+1 2 4
4 Morio Hashimoto 30 5+2 - - 1+8 - - C C 0+10+1 - 0+3 - 2 1
5 Noboru Hanada 28 0+6 0+1 0+5 2+2+1 0+2 0+1 E E 0+0 1+0 5+0 1+1 - 1
6 Takao Kurata 26 0+3 1+3 - 0+3 1+3 1+3 L L 0+2 0+3 0+0 0+3 - -
7 Jiro Takeuchi 15 0+0 0+2 2+3 0+0 - 0+0 E E 0+1 - 2+5 - - -
8 Hitoshi Kumakura 7 0+0 - 0+1 - 0+1 0+0 D D 0+3 0+1 0+1 - - -
2002 2nd Series (Apr.~Jun.) Final Point Standing
Pos Name Best9(Total) #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7 #8 #9 #10 #11 #12 Won TQ
1 Akitani 70(75) C 3+4 6+6 - 4+3 3+6 3+2 6+3 0+6+1 4+1 2+6 0+6 4 2
2 Noboru Hanada 68(70) A 4+6 3+3 4+6 2+4 0+2 4+0 3+2 - 3+4 4+9 3+4 3 -
3 Tebu Satoh 64 N 6+3 4+4 - 6+6 2+3 - - 6+3 6+2 6+4 2+1 1 4
4 Jiro Takeuchi 44 C 2+1 0+2 3+1 - 6+0 1+3 - 4+4 - 9+1+1 6+0 - 3
5 Takao Kurata 41 E 0+0 - 6+4 3+2 1+1 0+4 - 2+0 2+3 3+3 4+3 - 1
6 Masaru Sasaki 38(40) L 1+2 2+1 2+2 1+1 4+4 2+1 2+4 1+1 0+6 0+0 1+2 1 -
7 Morio Hashimoto 34 E - 1+0 0+3 - 0+0 6+6 4+6 3+2 - 1+2 - 2 1
8 Hitoshi Kumakura 4 D 0+0 - 1+0 - - 0+0 1+1 0+0 1+0 0+0 - - -
2002 1st Series (Jan.~Mar) Final Point Standing
Pos Name Best9(Total) #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7 #8 #9 #10 #11 Won TQ
1 Tebu Satoh 80(84) 6+6 4+4 4+0 1+3 4+3 4+6 4+6 4+6 4+9 - 3+3 5 1
2 Jiro Takeuchi 69(70) 3+2 6+3 6+1 6+2 3+2 0+1 - 6+1 9+3 6+2 6+2 - 7
3 Masaru Sasaki 61(66) 4+4 3+0 2+4 4+4 2+6 3+4 2+1 3+4 0+2 2+6 0+6 3 -
4 Akitani 44 - 0+2 3+6 - - 2+3 3+3 - 3+6 4+3 2+4 1 -
5 Noboru Hanada 36 0+0 1+0 - - 6+0 6+2 6+2 - 6+0 3+0 4+0 - 3
6 Takao Kurata 35 - 0+6 1+3 3+6 - 1+0 1+4 2+3 2+1 - 1+1 2 -
7 Morio Hashimoto 20 2+3 2+1 0+2 - 0+1 - - - 1+4 0+4 - - -
8 Hitoshi Kumakura 15 1+1 - - 2+1 1+4 0+0 - 1+2 0+0 1+1 - - -