Formula One, or F1, is the top motor racing series in the world. It's very popular in Japan, as are all the levels of Formula racing below it. Hayanari Shimoda, a 16-year-old high school student from Tokyo, took a big step up the racing ladder when he made his Formula Renault debut at Vallelunga Race Track in Italy (about 30 kilometers north of Rome) on Sunday, April 22. Juggling academics with a racing career isn't easy, but Hayanari is doing his best to keep up with his school work--even while he competes in races around the world.

He first fell in love with racing as a third grader, when his father took him to Fuji Speedway in Shizuoka Prefecture to see a race. Thrilled by the action, he begged his parents to let him start racing himself. When they said yes, he began practicing nearly every week driving smaller race cars called karts at a track in nearby Tochigi Prefecture. But for some time, kart racing remained little more than a hobby of his. Up through middle school his main sporting interest was soccer, which he played in his school clubs. In ninth grade, however, an injury kept him off the team, and he put his energy back into racing.

Hayanari made his official competition debut as a 13-year-old in the world of kart racing. Since then he has enjoyed a string of successes. This year, in the opening race of the Motegi Kart Race Series, he drove to a first-place finish. Soon after this victory he earned the right to move up to the Renault series of Formula racing. The young racer of course jumped at the chance to get in the driver's seat, but there was one problem: Formula drivers have to be at least 18 years old in Japan. So now Hayanari is driving in Italy, where 16 is the minimum age.

It's not an easy commute. Five days before his first race at Vallelunga he went by himself from Japan to Italy and stayed at a hotel there while preparing for the competition. After the preliminary race he had the finals on Sunday. When that was over he immediately took off for the airport to catch a plane that got him back to Japan on Monday. It's a tough schedule that he has to repeat again and again for each race. He says that he gets jet lagged, but with the delicious food in Italy it really isn't all that bad.

He's doing all this while attending high school in Kanagawa Prefecture. Most students would find it tough to be away from school so much of the time, but Hayanari says he is doing all right. "Working hard at my studies is just another way to improve my concentration. I don't want to be someone who only knows racing: I want to be able to concentrate on whatever I am doing at all times, whether it's studying, racing, or enjoying myself."

At the young age of 16 he is the first Japanese driver to compete in the Formula Renault, and Hayanari is well on his way to realizing his dream of becoming a Formula One driver by the time he is 18, which would make him the youngest Japanese F1 driver in history. Hayanari Shimoda could be a racer to watch on the Formula circuit for some time to come.

Photos: (top) Hayanari poses with his formula car; (above) the young racer is balancing his sport and his studies. (MK Company Co., Ltd.) (Some material taken from Tokyo Shimbun.)