How will the defending champion fare in 2024?

The 14th series of the Tohoku 660 Championship will begin on Sunday, April 14, 2024. There are five classes depending on the extent of modifications and experience, with the most entries in Classes 2 and 3. We interviewed the two champions, who won the fierce competition in which it was difficult to even qualify, to look back on the 2023 season and talk about their prospects for 2024.

Class 3 champion Masumi Iwatsuka takes on the challenge of Class 2

First is Masumi Iwatsuka, who has made rapid progress in her fifth year in the third class, and who, due to a job transfer, has had to travel from Mie Prefecture for most of the races. In the rainy opening round, “I thought I would fail the qualifying,” he said, but when he opened the door, he was 4th and finished 3rd in the final, which was a spot on the podium. This gave him confidence, and he went on to win the second round, Ebisu East, and the third round, Ebisu West, to clinch the championship.

In the final round, he drove a solid race and finished in 9th place, but as a result, he did not lose any points in all the races and won the championship with a 5-point lead over 2nd place. Drivers who were strongly in mind as rivals were Takuma Nishizawa, who won the season opener, Takafumi Ohira, who also competed from Auto Research Yonezawa and came in 2nd in the series, and Soma Sugawara, who always looked to finish in the top positions even in endurance races with a machine that is used very hard. Kohei Takenaka, who had to retire after his engine blew up in the race but qualified top in the second round, was also very fast.

The fact that he never took pole position in qualifying or the fastest lap in the race, despite being crowned champion, is the best proof that it was not an easy road for him.

This season, Iwatsuka will graduate from class 3 and move on to class 2 with high-grip tires. His goal is to win the championship.

“I want to declare that I will aim for the championship, knowing that I will be facing even stronger opponents than before!”

Hayato Ishikawa and Yuki Mogi, who stepped up in 2023, are waiting for him, and his rival Ohira is also likely to move to the second class. We look forward to the opening round to see how Iwatsuka will fare against them.

Komatsu Hidaka, a regular podium finisher, will be challenging in the highest class 1

Next is Hidaka Komatsu, the champion in Class 2, who has been a regular podium finisher since 2018 when he was a member of the university’s automobile club, but surprisingly, this is the first time he has won the series championship, including the Class 3 championship.

The turning point that brought him out of his shell was the opening round in 2023, where he controlled the car on a wet track without breaking down. Although he did not win the championship, he says it gave him confidence. Kenta Minose, who won the race at that time, was a senior member of the Automobile Club and had been his target and rival for a long time. Because he recognized his ability, he did not want to lose to him, and he had been aware of this throughout the season.

He then won the second round in Ebisu East and finished runner-up in the third round in SUGO. In the final round at Ebisu West, his home track where he has raced the most times, he achieved pole-to-win and the fastest lap. As a result, he won or finished runner-up in all four rounds, and his steady accumulation of points can be said to be the reason for his victory.

In the 2024 season, Komatsu will move up to the highest class, Class 1. The car is an L275 Daihatsu Mira built by Auto Research Yonezawa, and he will be at the wheel of the car for one year on a rental basis. Despite the extensive modifications, the displacement is 660cc, the same as the others, and the tires are high-grip radials, the same as in the second class.

The main differences are the LSD and ECU tuning, and the fact that gear ratio changes are permitted, all of which Komatsu has never experienced on a mini-car. However, he is familiar with FF with mechanical LSD in his other car, and will be able to quickly adjust his driving style about the ECU and gear ratios. If he can get to grips with the first class, which is full of veterans with a wealth of official race experience, his driving and battle skills should increase dramatically. We look forward to seeing Komatsu’s challenge to become a champion while honing his skills on a new stage.

translated by DeepL