FDJ3 2026 Rd.2 Suzuka Twin Results: Notsu Wins from 16th, Takes Lead

Souta Notsu (野津颯太, #80) won FDJ3 2026 Round 2 at Suzuka Twin Circuit (Mie) on Sunday 31 May 2026, beating Muneo Miyachi (宮地むねお, #670) in the final after qualifying sixteenth, the last seed into the bracket. Issa Minakawa (皆川一茶, #135) was classified third and Douglas Ozaki (尾崎ドグラス, #107) fourth, both on 63 points. The win took Notsu from fourth in the championship to first on 164, 39 clear of Miyachi. This report was written up on 7 September 2026 from the official result sheet, which is still headed 暫定リザルト, provisional, and every number in it was checked on the official pages on 7 Sep 2026.

Who won Round 2, and how?

FDJ3 is the entry tier of Formula Drift Japan and runs one-day rounds; this one was titled YOKOHAMA Presents 2026 FDJ3 Round.2. Admission was ¥3,000 at the gate, but the ¥1,500 car parking ticket was advance-only through CN Playguide from 30 April, with no same-day sale — a trap worth knowing, since ¥500 motorcycle parking was cash on the day. Our Suzuka Twin Circuit guide covers the venue’s drift-only D course and the phone-only booking that gets a car on it.

The morning was tansō (単走), solo judged runs, two per driver, ranked on the better score. Forty-eight cars appear on the sheet and 40 set a score. PANDA KUN (#3) topped it with an 84 and no second score, in a JZS171 Crown; SEIKA (#19) was second on 83 backed by an 80, Ryo Kato (加藤諒, #345) third on 81/79, Minakawa fourth on 80/73 and George (ジョージ, #25) fifth on 80/70. The cut fell at 75 with three drivers on that score and all three through, 17th place going to a 72. Notsu was the last of the three, so the draw put the lowest seed against the highest in the opening battle.

The afternoon was tsuisō (追走), tandem chase battles run twice with lead and chase swapped. Notsu’s PS13 Silvia took out PANDA KUN, then ninth qualifier Masahito Takeuchi (竹内理人, #488), then Minakawa in the semi-final, then Miyachi in the final. The sheet publishes outcomes rather than the judges’ scores, so we will not invent them: 2 qualifying points plus 100 for the win gave him 102, after 60 battle points at Fuji Speedway Drift Park in Round 1. Miyachi, seventh in qualifying on 77, took 83. Both semi-final losers banked 60 battle points and both had scored 3 in the morning, so Minakawa and Ozaki finished the day on exactly 63 each — the third-place battle on the bracket decided the trophy, not the points.

The bracket: which battles are worth rewatching?

Eight of the fifteen battles went to the lower qualifier. Two of those came in the Top 16, Notsu over PANDA KUN and Takeuchi over eighth qualifier Yuto Saito (齋藤優斗, #67); after that the pattern held all the way up, with second qualifier SEIKA beaten by Miyachi and third qualifier Kato by Ozaki, who is listed on the entry list from Brazil. Two drivers, Takuya Nagaoka (#22) and Ryosuke Kinoshita (#59), are marked リタイヤ, retired, with no qualifying score.

Who led the FDJ3 championship after Round 2?

The official standings page now carries three rounds, so the totals below are our sum of the official per-round points for Rounds 1 and 2 on that page, checked on 7 September 2026, not a figure the series publishes for that moment.

Round 1 winner Ricky Peres (リッキー ぺレス, #70) is the cautionary line in that table: he arrived leading on 106, qualified 29th, missed the cut and left third on 107. The scale, read off the result sheet, is 100 battle points for the win, 80 for the runner-up, 60 for each semi-final loser, 40 for a Top 8 exit and 20 for a Top 16 exit, plus 6 for qualifying P1 down through 5, 4, 3 and 2 to a single point for missing the cut — so one bad morning costs more than a good afternoon can repay. Where FDJ3 sits under FDJ2 and the top class is in our Formula Drift Japan guide.

Where the season went next

Notsu’s lead survived Round 3 at Ebisu Circuit West Course (Fukushima) on 5 July, where Minato Oike won and Notsu went out in the Top 16, as our Rd.3 Ebisu report sets out.

The round you can still get to is Rd.4 at Okuibuki Motorpark (Shiga) on Sunday 20 September 2026, another one-day round. Admission is ¥3,000 with car parking ¥1,500 or motorcycle ¥1,000, all sold on the day with no advance sale, which is the reverse of the Suzuka Twin rule. Driving in it is not an option: FDJ3 sells a season entry rather than a per-round price, and 2026 applications closed in February. Rd.5 at Fuji Speedway Drift Park (Shizuoka) on 18 October and the finale, Rd.6 at Tsukuruma Circuit Nasu (Tochigi), on 1 November follow, with ticket prices unpublished on 7 September 2026.

Okuibuki is the one that needs a plan rather than a ticket. Our Okuibuki Motor Park guide found that the resort’s own pages still send you to a bus Maibara City abolished on 1 October 2020. What runs instead is a weekday-only nine-seat wagon, useless on a Sunday, and a shared taxi that must be booked by phone in Japanese at least an hour ahead; both stop at Kōzuhara, roughly 3 km short of the venue on mountain road. The station shuttle quoted on the resort’s FAQ is a ski-season product with no published green-season equivalent.

Every FDJ3, FDJ2 and Formula Drift Japan date left in 2026 sits on the event calendar, rechecked against formulad.jp each month.