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Seita Nonaka picks up his second win. Kaylen Frederick takes first SFL podium
Seita Nonaka（PONOS Racing TOM'S 320 TGR-DC）
According to the finishing order of Rd 4 Seita Nonaka in PONOS Racing TOM’S 320 TGR-DC had secured pole position for the last race of SFL Autopolis event with Rikuto Kobayashi (Mobility Chukyo TOM’S 320 TGR-DC) as a fellow front-row sitter and Rin Arakawa (TEAM DRAGON 324) third on the grid.
A constant windy weather was likely to affect the race.
Start of Round.6■ Frederick jumps up to second at the start
When the lights went out at 12:35pm about three hours after the previous round Nonaka made a clean getaway from pole. Having suffered a stall at the start in Rd 5 Kobayashi got a solid but slow start from second, allowing Kaylen Frederick (Pilot ONE Racing with B-MAX) - who had also made a good start from fourth to shoot past him.
For the first few laps Frederick relentlessly chased Nonaka as he attempted to dive down the inside of the race leader at various turns including Turn one and the first hairpin on lap two, but Nonaka safely defended his position.
On lap four the gap began to gradually open up, with Frederick being closed in by Kobayashi, instead.
Behind them followed a pack with Yuga Furutani (Deloitte. HTP TOM’S 320) – who now sat fourth – heading Arakawa, Shun Koide (HFDP WITH B-MAX RACING) and Jin Nakamura (Mobility Chukyo TOM’S TGR-DC).
While the race relatively settled down by the end of lap four it was still in a tense situation where even a minor move could result in position changes.
Kaylen Frederick（Pilot ONE Racing with B-MAX）
■Nonaka makes it to the chequered flag with a huge lead
With Nonaka proceeding to build up a comfortable lead, nose-to-tail battles over runner-up position continued to the very final lap.
Autopolis has several points with higher probability of success in overtaking. Frederick perfectly took control of those points to keep Kobayashi down whilst being approached by Furutani in fourth and Arakawa in fifth as well.
Nonaka made it to the chequered flag with a huge 10.708 advantage to pick up his second win of 2024 without seeing major position changes behind him.
Frederick held on to second to take his maiden SFL podium result. Kobayashi was third, his second podium finish.
Furutani and Arakawa both recorded points finishes in all the three races of this weekend as Furutani finished fourth and Arakawa finished fifth.
Having overtaken Koide on lap 11 Nakamura placed sixth to round out the points.
In master class Nobuhiro Imada (JMS RACING TEAM) held off an early charge of DRAGON (TEAM DRAGON 324) to clinch his third consecutive class win.
