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Shun Koide notches up a fifth win with lights-to-flag victory
Syun Koide and Hideki MutohAfter two-day practice sessions qualifying of Rd 13 race got underway at 10:10am on Saturday at Okayama International Circuit under cloudy skies, with the previous day’s heat slightly easing.
Each car spent first two laps to warm up before setting about doing attacks. Maintaining his strength in practice Shun Koide in HFDP WITH B-MAX RACING significantly improved 1m22.992 he posted on his third lap to1m21.671 on his fifth lap to claim pole position.
B-MAX RACING TEAM locked out the front row as Kaylen Frederick (Pilot ONE Racing with B-MAX) placed second with a time of 1m22.351.
Koide’s title rival Seita Nonaka put his PONOS Racing TOM’S 320 TGR-DC in fourth on the grid behind Rikuto Kobayashi (Mobility Chukyo TOM’S 320 TGR-DC).
DRAGON (TEAM DRAGON 324) narrowly took master-class pole position with 1m24.975.
Start of Round.13■Koide’s huge lead wiped away by SC
As the lights went out at 2:30pm under hot sunshine, with air temperatures exceeding 30C and track temperatures approaching 50C Koide got somewhat wheelspin on pole position. Frederick got alongside Koide in to Turn one, only for his team-mate to hold on to the lead on the run to Turn two.
Nonaka tried to dive down the inside of Kobayashi heading into the hairpin, but there was no position change, either.
At the end of the opening lap came Koide at the front, followed by Frederick, Kobayashi, Nonaka and Jin Nakamura (Mobility Chukyo TOM’S 320).
Setting the fastest lap of the race on lap two with 1m24.035 Koide quickly pulled out a 2.234 secs buffer over Frederick a lap later before extending it to a comfortable 6.326 secs on lap 10, leaving Frederick gradually closed in by Kobayashi.
Behind them a pack with Nonaka heading Nakamura, Rin Arakawa (B-MAX RACING 324) and Souta Arao (HFDP WITH TODA RACING) was fighting over fourth position.
Koide’s solid lead, however, was wiped away on lap 11 when Arakawa spun off at Attwood into the gravel, and the safety car was deployed to remove the B-MAX RACING 324.
SC runs in Round.13■Chaotic closing stages for master class
At the restart on lap 16 Koide steadily retained his lead, while close battles were fought behind him especially among Kobayashi in third, Nonaka, Nakamura and Arao, with the four not giving each other an inch.
Koide was never challenged for the remaining 10 laps with a solid pace to notch up his fifth win of the season ahead of Frederick, heading B-MAX RACING TEAM one-two.
Kobayashi settled for third. Nonaka, Nakamura and Arao rounded out the top six.
In the meanwhile, DRAGON had maintained his master-class lead until the race was restarted. Having lined up at the back of the grid Makoto Fujiwara (TEAM DRAGON 324) made up positions at the start for second spot ahead of Nobuhiro Imada (JMS RACING TEAM)
After the safety car pulled in a series of dramas broke out. Imada hit DRAGON who was applying brakes. The contact injured Imada himself in his arm and damaged DRAGON’s machine, allowing Fujiwara and Yasuhiro Shimizu (GNSY 324) to ease past them.
The closing stages had another contact between Fujiwara and Shimizu, preventing Shimizu from taking the chequered flag. Fujiwara finished first on the road, but was demoted to second place due to a 10-second time penalty for the contact, and DRAGON was promoted to class victory.
