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Yuto Nomura snatches 11th wins after beating Rikuto Kobayashi in a race of high attrition
Yuto Nomura（HFDP WITH B-MAX RACING）
The Japanese Super Formula Lights’ season final event went into its final day for Rd 17 and Rd 18 races on Sunday.
In the Saturday’s qualifying for Rd 17 Yuto Nomura driving HFDP WITH B-MAX RACING was able to improve time on his final lap, posting 1m42.597 to claim pole position for the second race in a row, with Yuki Sano in Mobility Chukyo TOM’S TGR-DC SFL who posted 1m42.904 as a fellow front-row starter.
The second row was secured by Rikuto Kobayashi (Mobility Chukyo TOM’S TGR-DC SFL) who did just five laps, and SFL rookie Hiyu Yamakoshi (DELiGHTWORKS).
Start of Round.17■Opening lap sees six cars retire
The Motegi race weekend was blessed with fin weather, and for the Sunday race that kicked off at 9:05am under clear skies and temperatures around 12C Yamakoshi and a sixth-place qualifier Keito Matsui (B-MAX RACING 324) opted to use fresh rubber.
The race start saw Nomura make a good start from pole, and Kobayashi move around the outside on the run to Turn two to overtake Sano. Yusuke Mitsui (DELiGHTWORKS) and Yamakoshi followed the lead three.
At Turn five Matsui made a contact with Yuga Furutani (Deloitte. HTP TOM'S SFL) running ahead in sixth while battling with his teammate Zach David (B-MAX RACING 324), forcing himself and Furutani to lose control.
The collision led to a disaster that would eventually see six cars fail to finish the opening lap, as David was sent off the track and then clashed with Kazuhisa Urabe (B-MAX RACING 324) on the run to S-Bend, forcing himself to stop at S-Bend and Urabe to stop at V-Curve, with a master-class pair of DRAGON (TEAM DRAGON 324) and Yasuhiro Shimizu (GNSY RACING 324) making a contact trying to avoid the clash, forcing both to pit.
The safety car was deployed to clear the mess.
At the restart on lap five Nomura retained the lead ahead of Kobayashi, Sano Mitsui, Yamakoshi and Esteban Masson (PONOS Racing TOM’S TGR-DC SFL), with Kobayashi closely following, keeping the gap to the race leader at four to five tenths of a second.
Mitsui and Yamakoshi were also running nose-to-tail over fourth place, but neither of the battles did not result in overtakings.
safety car was deployed■Maiden master-class victory for Ken Alex
Due to the safety-car intervention it was uncertain until the very last moment whether the maximum extension time would be reached before completing 14 laps, but in the end, Nomura completed all the laps and fended off the late charge from Kobayashi to notch up his 11th win of the season. The top five were secured by the same lineup as the previous race as Sano finished third ahead of Mitsui and Yamakoshi.
The sixth and seventh places went to Masson and Reimei Ito (LMcorsa OTG 320) respectively.
In the master class, meanwhile, the retirements of the 2025 champion Shimizu and DRAGON on the opening lap left just two cars on the field, and it was Ken Alex (BUZZ RACING) who took the lead of master class despite his sluggish start. The SFL rookie made good use of his advantage this time to fend off a charging Nobuhiro Imada (JMS RACING TEAM) for his maiden class victory.
Hiyu Yamakoshi（DELiGHTWORKS）
Yusuke Mitsui（DELiGHTWORKS）
