Rio Shimono takes first points of the season in Japanese F4 at Motegi

Japanese racer Rio Shimono secured her first points of the season, with a ninth place finish in the second race of the penultimate round of the 2024 Japanese F4 season at Mobility Resort Motegi after a season of steady improvement.

Photo credits: F4 Japanese Championship

Japanese racer Rio Shimono secured her first points of the season, with a ninth place finish in the second race of the penultimate round of the 2024 Japanese F4 season.

Rio Shimono scored her first top-ten result of the Japanese F4 season at Mobility Resort Motegi, the penultimate round of her third season in the third tier of single-seater racing in Japan.

Shimono, who comes off a TCR Japan championship in the Bronze category, joined the F4 Japanese championship full-time in 2022 and has competed for Zap Speed and Dr.Dry in her three full time seasons in the championship.

The Japanese driver has shown remarkable improvement since joining the championship, achieving a best result of seventh in last year's opening race of the season. Having moved from Zap Speed to Dr.Dry in the middle of last year, the Osaka-born driver stayed with Dr.Dry for the 2024 season.

Despite a retirement in the first race of the season, Shimono took advantage of nine cars not starting race two and finished in 11th-place, just outside the points.

After gaining experience at Suzuka, Shimono returned to Fuji and was even closer to her competition, scoring a 13th-place finish in race one. The following round at Sugo proved to be a massive improvement as she finished 12th and 11th in both races.

Shimono had a good showing in the sole race at Autopolis, finishing 13th in a weekend headlined by bad weather. Aiming to continue her momentum, Shimono headed to Mobility Resort Motegi for the penultimate round of the season.

Her weekend started off on a familiar note, placing her #87 Dr.Dry car in the top 15 positions in the practice sessions.

In qualifying, Shimono posted the 15th-best time in both rounds of qualifying. The sessions saw Honda junior Ryota Horachi take pole for the first two races of the weekend.

Race one was held in wet conditions and Shimono lined up 15th. As soon as the race started, the Japanese racer soon passed OTG Motor Sports' Kenta Kumagai for P14.

Despite the treacherous conditions, Shimono kept herself out of trouble as other drivers hit trouble and finished the race in P11.

It was a promising result for the Osaka-native as she had shown competitive pace and was well within reach of her first points of the season before the race-ending safety car.

Photo credits: F4 Japanese Championship

The second race was held only a few hours after race one, and started in slightly worse conditions. Starting P15, Shimono initially struggled, losing a position on the opening lap, but soon found herself P13 after Hironobu Shimizu tagged Rintaro Sato into a spin, causing Tosei Moriyama to get beached in the gravel trying to avoid the incident.

On the safety car restart, Shimono overtook Masaki Murata to get herself up to P12 just before a safety car was called on the circuit for the second time after Kenta Kumagai beached his car in the gravel.

The safety car came in with three minutes to go, giving the drivers only two laps to race before the race ended. Shimono overtook Itsuki Sato just before the final lap to get herself up to P11, and would finish the race in that position.

A few hours after the race, Shimono was however promoted to ninth as two drivers ahead were given 40-second post-race penalties, meaning she achieved her maiden points of the season.

The third and final race of the weekend was held on Sunday morning, in dry conditions. Starting from P14, Shimono once again had a tricky start, dropping to P15 before a safety car was deployed as Nobuhiro Imada beached his car in the gravel.

On the restart, Kazuhisa Urabe had a mechanical failure while braking for turn 4, sending his car sideways into the gravel, making his car flip several times before landing. As Urabe got out of the car uninjured, the safety car period ended with a few minutes left, giving the drivers only one lap of racing.

As Yuto Nomura won race three, completing a weekend sweep, Shimono made her way to P13 to end a commendable weekend at Motegi.

Rio Shimono now has one round left in her third season of Japanese F4 competition, being the rescheduled second Suzuka round on December 7-8, as the series will continue its support for the Super GT Series.