We started on Sunday at a staple of japanese culture: Ebisu. For a track like this, there needs to be a car, that can pack a good challenge and Muffler Shop had just the things for it: The AE86 tuned. With 11 drivers, the 1 hour race ended with Jason Bagley going over the line first! The battle of the day was between the two 457 racing team drivers Aufschneider and Grazzer, who fought multiple laps for the last podium place while 14 seconds in the front was Nykänen, very comfortably taking his 18 points and showing once again his skill and endurance in such a feisty car. The AE86 was a problem for a few of the drivers on this day, with several of them in the back spinning out and only catching a few pieces of grass instead of valuable points in the mini championship.

We already saw a small dip in attendance on the coming Wednesday, when only 7 people showed up to the two part race at Tsukuba. The low attendance wasn’t that much of a problem for the very short version of the track and saw a few fights here and there. Nykänen showed off his skill in both of the races, finishing first even with the grid reversed in the second race. We also saw a huge difference in the times between single drivers, making Tsukuba a lot more exciting for a fight between the drivers. As Marko Nykänen went into the last round into Suzuka, his point advantage was already quite good.

The last round at Suzuka was in full night and saw a single race for one and a half hour in the Nissan GT-R, unfortunately with more drivers missing on this quite exciting round. Since Jason Bagley, who won the first round at Ebisu wasn’t there to make points, the winner of this Mini Muffler cup was already decided, but Marko Nykänen had still some dominance to show. With more than a lap in advance, Nykänen went over the line first, securing him the win over the Mini Muffler Japan in March!

What’s in store for the next Mini Muffler isn’t yet decided, but interest in other japanese cars was already issued, so it’s safe to say, that we will come back to this iconic place with new cars at some point. Stay tuned for more infos!