TOPICS
Evan Giltaire secures third win after showing his pace in wet
Evan Giltaire（ART Grand Prix with B-MAX）
Three hours after Rd 5 the Japanese Super Formula Lights headed into Rd 6, the last race of the three-heat Autopolis weekend, and its starting grid determined by the finishing order of Rd 4 saw Kotaro Shimbara in HFDP WITH B-MAX RACING sitting on pole position with Yusuke Mitsui (DELiGHTWORKS) in second, Evan Giltaire (ART Grand Prix with B-MAX) in third and Rintaro Sato (B-MAX ENGINEERING 324) in fourth.
Start of Round.6■Sato crashes just after the start
With the rain having stopped for over three hours and the track considerably drying out all the drivers except DRAGON (B-MAX ENGINEERING 324) and Ken Alex (BUZZ RACING) opted to start the race on slicks.
As the lights went out at 0:15pm amidst a drizzle, Shimbara got away strongly from pole whilst Giltaire made a bit sluggish start in third place, allowing Sato to ease past.
Just behind Mitsui closely tailing Shimbara, Giltaire was closing in on Sato, and the two made a contact on the run to Second Hairpin on lap two, with Sato being launched in to the air before spearing into the barriers on the outside.
Fortunately, Sato was able to extricate himself out of the car, but his hope of first podium finish was dashed.
The race was immediately brought under the safety car and then was red flagged on lap five due to intensifying rain, prompting all the cars on slicks to switch to wets.
The race restarted at 0:45pm behind the safety car with the time limit set at 1:05pm.
Kotaro Shimbara（HFDP WITH B-MAX RACING）
■Shimizu clinches third master class win of the season
With the race getting underway properly with Shimbara at the front on lap seven Giltaire nailed the restart in a brilliant manner akin to the last time in Rd 5 to quickly close in on Mitsui before sweeping past into Turn one to take second spot.
Giltaire then went on to reduce the gap to Shimbara at the front with a remarkable charge on the following laps and made a daring move around the outside of the race leader at Turn three on lap 11 while running over the kerbs on the outside to finally snatch the lead. From there, Giltaire continued to show his pace in wet conditions as he fended off Shimbara and Mitsui to secure his third win of the season when the safety car made its second appearance after DRAGON crashed at Turn two on lap 12.
The fourth place was fought by TOM'S team-mates of Yuzuki Miura (Mobility Chukyo TOM’S TGR-DC SFL) – who had gained positions at the start – and Kiyoshi Umegaki (Mobility Chukyo TOM’S TGR-DC SFL), and eventually won by Miura even though the two briefly went off the track together. Akshay Bohra (PONOS RACING TOM'S TGR-DC SF) scored his first podium finish in sixth.
Yasuhiro Shimizu (ART TASTE RACING) who had started the race on slicks held on for his third master class win of the season.
