Japanese Formula Pacific 1982

Kazuyoshi Hoshino won a second Japanese Formula Pacific title in 1982, winning seven races and leaving him with a record of ten wins in 16 races from May 1981 onwards. After starting the season in his 1981 mount, the ex-Takao Wada March 79B, Kenji Takahashi bought a new March 82A but quickly dropped that for the latest Ralt RT4/82, with which he won three races on the trot before Hoshino reasserted himself.

1982 would prove to be the final season for Formula Pacific in Japan, and a number of factors contributed to its abrupt fall. Firstly, the Ralt RT4/82 arrived, and immediately rendered all the other cars uncompetitive. Hoshino, Kenji Takahashi and Masahiro Hasemi all bought Ralts to continue their multi-formula rivalry, and poor March 81A driver Toshio Suzuki went from winning the second round to fighting just to get onto the podium. Secondly, the category was not working as a development formula, and the JAF's introduction of Formula 3 instead would work better. Thirdly, Grand Champion was taking off as a single-seater sports car category, similar to the new Can-Am in the US, and this would mop up a lot of the old F2 cars that could have bolstered the grids in Formula Pacific. To seal the category's fate, grid sizes hovered around seven or eight, only half the size of the Formula 2 grids. It was the right time to close it down.

The races

07 Mar 1982 > Tsukuba

21 Mar 1982 > Mine

25 Apr 1982 > Sugo

09 May 1982 > Tsukuba

13 Jun 1982 > Tsukuba

11 Jul 1982 > Tsukuba

08 Aug 1982 > Fuji

29 Aug 1982 > Suzuka

19 Sep 1982 > Sugo

17 Oct 1982 > Mine

06 Nov 1982 > Suzuka

1982 Japanese Formula Pacific Championship table