Takuma Sato continued his IndyCar season with his home race at Motegi, where a top-six finish was converted to 10th position by a late incident. But, bearing in mind the troubles in Japan in 2011, the most important thing was that the race happened at all.

“It was a very important race,” said Sato. “At one stage they were possibly going to cancel the event because of damage to the oval and the facility, but with a lot of support they were able to convert the race to the road course.

“Since they announced that this would be the final Indy Japan, this race had to happen! I spent a full week before the race doing non-stop events and interviews. It was fairly busy but I got a lot of support from the fans, and the attendance at the track was massive!”
Unfortunately, the form of the KV Racing Technology-Lotus team on road circuits this season has not been quite as strong as expected. Taku was sixth fastest in his group in the first round of qualifying, but an 11th place in round two was insufficient to put him into the Firestone Fast Six – although he was only 0.15 seconds off making the cut in an ultra-competitive field.

“We struggled a lot, and it was a real shame because I thought we’d be strong here, with a smooth surface, good grip and a straightforward layout, with a lot of heavy braking and 90-degree corners. But the reality was quite different. We struggled a lot trying to get balance, but in qualifying I was able to get a relatively good time. Even so, it wasn’t the position I wanted and I’d desperately wanted a strong result! Still, the support from the fans was great and I was hopeful of a strong race.”

In the race, Sato settled into 10th place in the early going. “It was quite a high pace at the start,” he said. “Because of the layout of the circuit and where I was, we were single file, but I was able to make up one position on the first lap and after that it was just a case of following the race.

“That was up until we all ended up in one group. Marco Andretti started on the hard tires and he seemed to be struggling at end of the stint. I was so close to him when he had a little moment and I had to lift. Unfortunately it was bad timing because JP (Joao Paulo de Oliveira) caught me up quickly and dived to the inside of the hairpin. He seemed to not be able to hold his line, I was outside and he slid wide, touched me and we both ran wide. That was very crucial, and I lost many positions coming back to the track.”

From then, Taku had what he described as a “long, patient race” in order to fight back up the order. With a few laps to go there was a caution period, and on his home ground at the Honda-owned facility he was up to seventh place. “There was incredible support from the fans through the whole race,” he said. “I could see flags, and fans jumping up and down and waving. It was great! Just before the final restart the sun was going down towards the control tower, and seeing the sun through the flags was so beautiful.

“At the restart I made a good start, and overtook my team-mate Viso to get up to sixth. I nearly got Alex Tagliani too for fifth, but into Turn 1 I didn’t want to take too much risk. I backed off to follow ‘Tag’, but then suddenly from my left-hand side, EJ drove into me. Since I had ‘Tag’ in front of me I could go nowhere and EJ just cut across from the outside.”

“The touch was early in the corner entry, but the consequence was that we got sideways and he came into me again, and in the end we tangled. This is Indy Japan, we are not battling for the championship, and my pass was done by the start-finish line. I couldn’t understand what he was doing. Such a disappointing and unnecessary finish, when it could have been very exciting.”

So it was something of a letdown for Taku but an indicator of his current form that he is disappointed with a top ten finish. Now he has a two-week gap before the penultimate race of the 2011 season, at Kentucky Speedway on October 2nd: “This race at Motegi was disappointing, but as an event, in the bigger picture, it was very successful. All three or four days it was going on, it was packed. I really appreciate the massive support and I just wish it wasn’t the final event. I’m even doing more events on Monday.

“Now onto Kentucky, hopefully we can get good speed for this and the final race at Las Vegas. Both are ovals, and I’m really looking forward to them.”

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