Nobushige Fukuda
Nobushige Fukuda (1987/1988 - September 13, 2015) was a racing driver from Hokkaidō Prefecture, Japan. He drove for Parma Corse, Grand Travaux Inutiles, and Melrose Racing Team in the Rejects of LFS. He was known for his smooth and consistent driving style.
History
Fukuda started his single-seater career in the All-Japan Formula 3 Championship in 2008. He competed there for three years, winning the championship in his final season. In 2009 and 2010 he complimented his F3 programme as a co-driver in Super GT. After starting his first year at Endless Nissan in the GT300 class, he moved up to GT500 with ENEOS Toyota Team LeMans.
In 2011, he progressed to Formula Nippon with Petronas Team TOM'S, and managed a highest championship finish of 3rd in 2012.
In 2014, he switched to F1 Rejects Big Car Championship team Scuderia Alitalia with backing from Toyota. When the series collapsed, he went became a tester for Parma Corse, Alitalia's B-team, at the revived Rejects of LFS. Soon he replaced Stefan Kuntz at rival team Grands Travaux Inutiles while the German driver was on suspension for causing multiple incidents at the 2014 South City sprint race. GTI were impressed with his driving and decided to drop Kuntz permanently in favour of Fukuda.
With Parma Corse electing to run former F2RWRS driver Marco Bizzarri along with promising rookie Marcel Agyemang-Badu, he instead remained at Grands Travaux Inutiles for another year. From Fern Bay onwards, he moved to Melrose Racing Team.
Death
At the 2015 Rejects of LFS Kyoto Ring feature race, the penultimate race of the season, held on September 13, 2015, Fukuda spun out at lap 20 and failed to rejoining the track until 2 laps later, where, he was struck by Tristan Jung from behind, resulting in Fukuda's car crashing before his car landed upside down, before Tanner Jason struck him afterwards, in which Fukuda's car flew several feet near the nearby Cromo advertising hoarding (Fukuda's head reportedly smashed the hoarding), before landing back on the ground, upside down, with damaged wings. Fukuda was extricated from his car by the Kyoto Ring marshalls and airlifted to the nearby hospital for his injuries. It was later reported that he have died from the accident after being pronounced dead on arrival. He was 27 years old.
Reactions and investigation
Following those incidents, the following Nippon Super 300 race was shortened to 200 kilometers and teams run tribute liveries for the race. The engines for those races will be less powerful for safety reasons.
The series organizers investigated Jason and later, Jung following the incident. It later came to conclusion that both drivers ignored yellow flags. Jason and Jung were found guilty of "dangerous driving that leads to a fatal accident" and were banned from the series, each for different timespan (Jason for life, Jung for one year - initially two prior to appeal) and both were disqualified from the standings and retroactively from the races (Jung's constructor points for his team Tarantino Autosport were later reinstated upon appeal). Furthermore, both drivers have their F1RWRS license revoked and faced serious fines. Jason retired from motorsport immediately following the judgement, cancelling his role in the Indianapolis 800 non-championship race and Aeroracing Engineering threatened to withdrew from the series, while Jung successfully appealed the sanctions.
Legacy
A non-championship round of the IFRC was held as the 'Nobushige Fukuda Memorial Trophy' to honour Fukuda. It was held at Autopolis on October 23, 2016, having been moved forward a week.
Alessandro Marchesi won the race and the first Nobushige Fukuda Memorial trophy.
In 2017, the race was won by British driver Thomas Butler, this time under the rebranded name of AutoReject 3.5. Butler won it from pole position.
Results
Rejects of LFS
| Year | Team | Chassis | Engine | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | DC | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | Grands Travaux Inutiles | Scaven S11B | Judd 3.0 V8 | BLA FEA |
BLA SPR |
SOU FEA |
SOU SPR |
FER FEA 15 |
FER SPR 3 |
KYO FEA 11 |
KYO SPR 17 |
WES FEA 7 |
WES SPR 10 |
AST FEA 15 |
AST SPR 4 |
19th | 3 | |
| 2015 | Grands Travaux Inutiles | Scaven S15 | Trabant-Zytek 3.0 V8 | BLA HEA 6 |
BLA FEA 13 |
WES HEA 7 |
WES FEA 9 |
34th | 1 | |||||||||
| Melrose Racing Team | Scaven S15 | BMW-Zytek 3.0 V8 | FER HEA 4 |
FER FEA Ret |
SOU HEA EX |
SOU FEA EX |
AST HEA 13 |
AST FEA DNQ |
KYO HEA 10 |
KYO FEA Ret |
KYO 200 |
F1 Rejects Big Car Championship
| Year | Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | DC | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | Virgin Inter Corse | CLY 2 |
3rd | 16 | ||||||||||
| Scuderia Alitalia | SOM Ret |
ELB C |
VAT C |
AUL C |
GER C |
ENG C |
SCO C |
USA C |
AUS C |
VAN C |
- * Season in progress