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Jin Nakamura wins a chaotic Rd 8 in rain with his maiden SFL victory
Jin Nakamura (Mobility Chukyo TOM’S TGR-DC)
On the final day of Super Formula Lights SUGO event Rd 8 and R 9 races took place.
In the Saturday’s qualifying for Rd 8 Kaylen Frederick in Pilot ONE Racing with B-MAX had secured his first SFL pole position with 1m13.025 in nearly 30C heat, ahead of Jin Nakamura (Mobility Chukyo TOM’S TGR-DC) and Souta Arao (HFDP WITH TODA RACING). The Rd 7 winner Shun Koide (HFDP WITH B-MAX RACING) would start from fourth on the grid.
Safety car run in Round.8■ Jin Nakamura seizes lead at the start
The forecasted rain had turned the track into completely wet conditions. Although having experienced wet conditions in a joint test at Mobility Resort Motegi in March every car was working hard for preparations for the first wet race of the season.
With drizzle still falling and no let-up predicted the race started at 9am under the safety car.
When it was going to peel in on lap four Makoto Fujiwara (TEAM DRAGON 324) – who had started from 12th on the grid – went off the track at Umanose on lap three, forcing the safety car to continue to stay out.
When the race started properly on lap six Frederick made a good start, but lost his balance on the run to Turn three to slightly get off the track, allowing Nakamura to seize the lead. Frederick returned to the track in second.
Koide pushed hard Arao in third, the pair running nose-to-tail for a couple of laps, but after lap nine the Toda driver began to escape away from the B-Max driver and close in on Frederick.
In the middle of the race Nakamura went on to multiply his lead with the benefit of a clear track, while a close scrap fought over runner-up spot by Frederick, Arao and Koide continued till the end, with Arao attempting passes on Frederick on several occasions with various lines whilst watching out Koide on his tail.
Start of Round.8■A Battle over second spot won by Arao
With the 30-minute time limit about to expire before the scheduled 19 laps had been covered after an extended safety car period Frederick was surviving a late charge from Arao despite a minor machine trouble.
On lap 16 Koide got onto the tail of Arao at Umanose and, as soon as the Toda driver slightly lost control of his car, got past him for second spot.
Koide further went around the outside of Umanose to get alongside Frederick, making a brush of contact, which caused them tangle with each other and sent both drivers off the track.
They narrowly escaped the gravel but allowed Arao to get by, bringing him his first SFL podium finish in second.
Nakamura completed 18 laps with a comfortable 12.107secs lead at the flag over Arao.
Frederick finished third on the road, only to be given a five-second time penalty for a dangerous driving in the last-minute battle with Koide, demoting him to fifth behind Rikuto Kobayashi (Mobility Chukyo TOM’S 320 TGR-DC) in third and Rin Arakawa (TEAM DRAGON 324) in fourth.
Yuga Furutani (Deloitte. HTP TOM’S 320) rounded out the points in sixth.
Koide managed to return to the track to finish eighth.
Nobuhiro Imada (JMS RACING TEAM) tried to stretch his master-class winning streak to five, but DRAGON (TEAM DRAGON 324) showed his advantage in wets and snatched the lead from Imada on lap eight, which he would retain to the chequered flag as he scored his first master-class win of the season.
Nobuhiro Imada and DRAGON
