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Iori Kimura’s lights-to-flag win puts him level on points with Hibiki Taira
Iori Kimura（HFDP WITH B-MAX RACING）
After two-day practice sessions the 2023 Japanese Super Formula Lights championship entered its final event at Mobility Resort Motegi.
Persistent rain had stopped, and when the qualifying for Rd 16 and Rd 17 started at 9:25 am under clear skies all the cars except the B-MAX RACING 320 driven by David Vidales who had to miss the session due to a machine failure headed out on slicks for the track still slightly wet but with a completely dried racing line.
With each car launching attacks on its fourth to sixth lap Iori Kimura (HFDP WITH B-MAX RACING) posted 1m43.285 to secure pole position for Rd 16 race. The B-MAX driver did not run a single lap on Friday, but continued his good form from Thursday’s session to strike back in his title battle.
Second was Shun Koide (HFDP WITH TODA RACING) and third was Togo Suganami (JMS RACING WITH B-MAX) in his first appearance since the forth Fuji event.
Struggling with his machine set-up the championship leader Hibiki Taira (Mobility Chukyo TOM’S 320 TGR-DC) settled for seventh after a mistake.
Start of Round.16■Suganami grabs second at the start
As the race started five minutes late at 1:45 pm three and a half hours after the qualifying with the wind picking up and the temperature dropping, Kimura got the holeshot. With a stunning getaway Suganami overtook a slow starting Koide to grab second. The Toda driver was also passed by Igor Omura Fraga (FANATEC-GRAN TURISMO with B-MAX) in a scrap towards Turn four, allowing B-Max Racing team to dominate top three.
Having moved up from seventh to fifth Taira rapidly closed in on Koide and got around the outside on the run to Turn four to make a pass for fourth. Koide found himself in seventh by lap three as he lost another position to Seita Nonaka (PONOS Racing TOM’S 320 TGR-DC).
With more than two-second lead that he had built over Suganami at the end of lap three Kimura kept pushing and set the fastest lap of the race with 1m44.823 on lap six.
Suganami, Kimura, Omura Fraga■Kimura ties with Taira on points
The closing stages saw the leading pack gradually spreading. While a battle between Suganami and Omura Fraga became tense on several occasions Suganami held on to finish second as Omura Fraga couldn’t get close enough in the dirty air.
Kimura controlled the race throughout the 14 laps to take fifth win, his first since Rd 8 at Suzuka, heading up a B-Max dominant podium finish.
This convincing result coupled with a point for taking another pole position for Rd 17 put Kimura level on points with Taira who finished fourth.
Fifth went to Nonaka and sixth went to Yuga Furutani (Deloitte, HTP TOM’S 320).
In the meantime Nobuhiro Imada (JMS RACING with B-MAX) led the master class from the opening lap to take a commanding victory, opening up his lead over DRAGON (TEAM DRAGON B-MAX 320) in the standings, which means he will be crowned unless he fails to finish in the remaining two races.
