Kazuya Oshima must have had a special feeling for the weekend because despite consecutive pole wins in the 2006 opening races at Fuji Speedway he failed to convert them to wins due to a mistake during getaway in the first round. The Tom’s driver took pole for the season-opening race at Fuji in the scattered rain for the second year in a row. The pole also gave credit to the new 1AZ-FE engine in its debut race. The three Tom’s drivers dominated top three in the qualifying: Oliver Jarvis with 1AZ second and Hiroaki Ishiura with 3S-G third quickest. Robert Streit (Inging), Marko Asmer (ThreeBond) and Kodai Tsukakoshi (Honda Team Real) completed top six.

　The opening session started in dry condition although the weather still looked unsettled. Oshima had his engine stalled as the red signal went off, allowing Jarvis who was just waiting for the right time, Streit, Ishiura, Yuhi Sekiguchi (NMS) and Asmer to move past. “I suddenly let in the clutch, and that caused the stall,” said Oshima.

　While the three leaders were building big lead he tried to close in from 6th place but the traffic caused by Asmer and Sekiguchi blocked him. At Coca Cora corner on lap 7 he rocketed through Asmer and Sekiguchi, who competed for 4th in the corner one to 4th. He was considered to maintain the spot but Streit span on lap 13 to drop to 4th and he was lucky enough to end up a podium finish. Jarvis led the field all the way through the race to claim his first ever win in Japanese F3 Championship, giving another credit to the new 1AZ. The race also turned out Tom’s dominated podium, with Streit, Sekiguchi and Asmer completing top 6.