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Evan Giltaire picks up second win after prevailing in rainy race
Evan Giltaire（ART Grand Prix with B-MAX）
On the final day of the Japanese Super Formula Lights‘ Autopolis weekend Rd 5 and Rd 6 races took place in wet conditions for the first time since FP4 on Friday.
In the qualifying for Rd 5 held on Saturday in dry conditions Kotaro Shimbara in HFDP WITH B-MAX RACING claimed pole position for the second time in a row with 1m36.889, with Yusuke Mitsui (DELiGHTWORKS) who had finished second in Rd 4 as fellow front-row starter.
The second row was secured by Evan Giltaire (ART Grand Prix with B-MAX) and Kiyoshi Umegaki (Mobility Chukyo TOM’S TGR-DC SFL).
Start of Round.5■Shimbara retains lead at the start, but subsequently concedes it to Giltaire
With the rain stopping in the lead up to lights out the race kicked off with no visibility concerns at 8:20am with standing start.
Shimbara got away strongly in the first wet start of the season, whilst Mitsui unusually struggled to get up to speed, allowing Giltaire to overtake, although he fended off a charging Umegaki.
At the end of the opening lap came Shimbara, Giltaire, Mitsui, Umegaki and Rintaro Sato (B-MAX ENGINEERING 324) in this order.
Giltaire turned in an outstanding drive in wet to reduce the gap to Shimbara, and took the opportunity when his rival slightly lost his balance at the final turn on lap three to mount a furious challenge for several turns to seize the lead at Second Hairpin on lap four.
Unlike in the previous round Shimbara was now struggling to keep up with the pace of the race leaders. On lap six he was quickly overtaken by Mitsui at Astemo and even fell behind Umegaki a lap later, dropping fourth before being forced into a three-way battle with Sato and Yuzuki Miura (Mobility Chukyo TOM’S TGR-DC SFL).
Evan Giltaire（ART Grand Prix with B-MAX）
■DRAGON takes first master class win of the season
On lap nine Akshay Bohra (PONOS RACING TOM'S TGR-DC SF) came to a halt at Second Hairpin whilst battling Oscar Wurz (PONOS RACING TOM'S TGR-DC SF) over eighth spot. That brought out the safety car, and Giltaire's lead was wiped out.
At the restart on lap 13, however, Giltaire pulled away from Mitsui to take the chequered flag for his second win of the season. Umegaki completed the podium. Sato placed fourth for the second race in a row.
The battle over fifth remained fierce until the end, with Shimbara managing to hold on for fifth position. Miura finished sixth, his first point-scoring result in SFL.
Determined to avenge his setback on the final lap in Rd 4 DRAGON (B-MA ENGINEERING 324) stormed into the master-class lead at the start ahead of Yasuhiro Shimizu (ART TASTE RACING 324) and Ken Alex (BUZZ RACING), and despite the wet conditions and the late safety-car intervention, he claimed his first class-win of the season.
Second and third went to Shimizu and Alex respectively.
