Lyons sweeps FNippon double at Suzuka
Ulster's Richard Lyons scored a brace of Formula Nippon race wins at Suzuka on Sunday, scoring the first ever victories for the Dandelion DoCoMo team
From third on the grid in the opening wet race, Lyons quickly caught pole sitter Takeshi Tsuchiya in his Le Mans Lola and took the lead going in to Spoon Curve before driving away from the rest of the field to win convincingly.
With the grid for the feature race decided on the results of the first event, Lyons sprinted away from pole position and produced another faultless display, although Satoshi Motoyama made things a little more difficult for the 23-year-old Ulsterman.
A mid-race safety car period to clear away Yuji Tachikawa's car saw the field bunch up and Motoyama unleash a fresh attack on Lyons in the remaining 12 laps, but Lyons soaked up the pressure well. Motoyama slowed on the very last lap, his Mugen engine out of fuel. Despite trying in vain to slosh the final drops from the tank, he cruelly stopped just 400 meters from the finishing line, thus opening the title race wide open.
"After making some changes to the chassis set up I was confident that we had the best package this weekend," said Lyons. "I've had wins this season for Nismo in the GT Championship but to score my first win in Nippon feels very special indeed."
Previous article
F1 bosses meet over Stoddart protest threat
Next article
Jaguar and Peugeot back new SCV8 series
How to Stay Out of Crashes
This Week with Will Buxton: Episode 1
Live - Goodwood FoS 2021: Saturday
Live - Goodwood FoS 2021: Friday
The one-time Schumacher rival rebooting his career Down Under
Joey Mawson made waves in the middle of the last decade, beating future Haas Formula 1 driver Mick Schumacher - among other highly-rated talents - to the 2016 German F4 title. A run in F1's feeder GP3 category only caused his career to stall, but now back in Australia Mawson's S5000 title success has set that to rights
The lesson football’s would-be wreckers could learn from racing
OPINION: The greed-driven push for a European Super League that threatened to tear football apart is collapsing at the seams. Motor racing's equivalent, the football-themed Superleague Formula series of 2008-11, was everything that the proposed ESL never could be
The F1 and Indy 'nearly man' that found contentment in Japan
Having had the door to F1 slammed in his face and come within three laps of winning the Indianapolis 500, the collapse of a Peugeot LMP1 shot meant Japan was Bertrand Baguette's last chance of a career. But it's one which he has grasped with both hands
The female all-rounder who arrived "too early"
From Formula 3 to truck racing, Dakar and EuroNASCAR via a winning stint in the DTM, there's not much Ellen Lohr hasn't seen in a stellar racing career that highlights the merit in being a generalist. But she believes her career came too early...
How Radical's latest machines fare on track
The lightweight sportscar manufacturer has not rewritten the rulebook with its latest machines, but the new SR3 XX and SR10 still provide a step forward on its previous successful models
The real-life racing rogues stranger than fiction
The forthcoming Netflix film linking the world of underworld crime and motorsport plays on a theme that isn't exactly new. Over the years, several shady figures have attempted to make it in racing before their dubious dealings caught up with them
How a GP is thriving in a COVID-free territory
The New Zealand Grand Prix's mix of rising talent and big-name stars thrilled the crowds (yes, remember crowds?) assembled for the Toyota Racing Series meeting at Hampton Downs last weekend and left distant observers craving a repeat
How a much-changed Macau GP kept the party going
OPINION: The 67th edition of the Macau Grand Prix might have been a largely muted affair to the outside world without its international influx and star line-ups, another victim to the COVID-19 pandemic, but organisers deserve huge credit for keeping the party going
