Thus, should we just consider them as One Hit
Wonders?
Like many story ideas here at No Fenders, this
one’s been simmerin’ a long, long time on Ye Isle ‘O Nofendersville. But I finally
thought I’d take it off the Stove so to speak since after all we’re All
supposed to be in a Tizzy over the Delayed 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, who
are doing their Bestest impersonation of Mother Speedway and Circuit de la
Sarthe racing without any Fans last year…
Presumably there’s many more Japanese Open
Wheel Racing Drivers currently competing around the Globe, but I no longer have
the energy, or more suscintly the time to try ferreting All of them out,
especially since Japan runs a Derth of Open Wheel Racing series, most notably
Super Formula, where current IndyCar Points leader Alex Palou came from.
Thus I’ll just focus on this Trio of presumably
Forgotten aspiring Open Wheel Racers, whom I’m Arse-suming it was one of Grizzled
F1 Journo’ Joe Saward’s blog posts several years ago where I gleamed Thar names
from.
As these three virtual Unknowns, who raced in
the former World Series Formula V-8 3.5 series and FIA Formula 2 championship never
quite made it to Formula 1.
And I’ll let Y’all ponder in this veritable exercise
of Nation building, as the world watches the Tokyo Olympics with Baited Breath.
Does it matter if Japan, and more specifically Honda has a future Japanese
driver in IndyCar’s after Takuma Sato finally retires?
Thars’ the Gun, And there Off!
Yu Kanamaru
Series: World Series Formula V-8 3.5
Years: 2015-2017
As ‘Ol Sargent Schultz would say, “I Know
Nothing” about Yu Kanamaru, whom somehow I discovered Wayback in the languishing
days of the once prolific World Series by Renault 3.5 series, after it had lost
it’s Renault Funding and has since ceased operations in 2017. As I’m guessing
this was because I was very interested in Pietro Fittipaldi’s title challenge
when the young Brazilian won the final Formula V-8 3.5 Championship that year.
Kanamaru graduated to Single Seaters in 2012
from Karting and took a surprise victory at Spa francorchamps in that year’s
Formula Renault 2.0 NEC series before bouncing around in several other lower
tier Open Wheel Feeder series.
Kanamaru then made his Formula Renault 3.5 series
debut in 2015 with a finish of 18th Overall as a replacement driver
for Meindert Van Buuren. As Yu continued in the World Series Formula V-8 3.5
Championship for the next two years with finishes of 8th and 7th
Overall respectively.
Next, Yu moved onto the Japanese Formula 3
series, Touring Cars, the F3 Asian and Formula Regional Japanese Championship Open Wheel Racing Feeder series the past few
years.
Nirei Fukuzumi
Series: FIA Formula 2 Championship
Years: 2018
Like the majority of today’s aspiring Open
Wheel Racers, Nirei began Go Kart racing in 2010 before graduating to Single
Seaters in 2014, contesting various Japanese F4 Championships.
In 2015 Fukuzumi contested the Japanese Formula
3 series, where he won two races during his Rookie campaign en route to fourth
in the championship.
For 2016 Nirei moved to the then GP3
Championship, joining ART Grand Prix where he collected three podiums and finished
in 7th place during his Rookie season. Staying with ART Grand Prix another
year, Fukuzumi claimed two Feature Race wins, finishing an impressive third
overall behind team-mates George Russell and Jack Aitken, with Russell winning
the title.
For 2018 Fukuzumi moved up to Formula 2,
driving for BWT Arden for one season, finishing a modest 17th
overall, ironically scoring 17 points.
For the past three years, Nirei has split his
time between racing “Saloons” for Autobacs Racing Team Aguri along with racing
in the Super Formula series for Dandelion Racing.
And Yeah, that Tintops team is run by Aguri
Suzuki, a former Formula 1 Driver. As Fukuzumi won the Japanese GT300 Series
title in 2019 behind the wheel of an Acura NSX.
Tadasuke
Makino
Series: FIA Formula 2 championship
Years: 2018
Tadasuke is another “Mystery” driver to Mwah,
and any in depth background on his racing career seems hard to find. Presumably
he began Go Karting at an early age, with the 2015 Japanese F4 Series as his
Single Seater Debut, where he claimed six Wins, four Poles and 11 Podiums en
route to runner-up in the Championship.
For 2016 Tadasuke graduated to the Japanese Formula
3 series where he recorded one Pole position and four Podiums en route to
finishing fifth overall. Next, Makino moved up to the FIA F3 European
Championship in 2017 with modest results, recording just one Podium and finishing
15th overall.
Tadasuke then joined the reigning FIA Formula 2
Team Champions Russian Time Racing for 2018 and claimed his maiden F2 win at Monza’s
Feature race, finishing P13 Overall before leaving the series.
Like Fukuzumi above, Makino has since focused
upon splitting his time between Domestic Saloon racing and the Super Formula
series. He’s the reigning Super GT Champion,
Albeit making his series debut in 2016 when he contested three events. Whilst Tadasuke has just won the latest (2021) Super GT round at Motegi with Co-Driver Naomi Yamamoto…
