TOPICS
Seita Nonaka nails start from fourth on the grid to win Rd 9
Seita Nonaka（PONOS Racing TOM'S 320 TGR-DC）
The last race of the Super Formula Lights Sugo weekend got underway at 0:35pm on Sunday about three hours from the previous round.
According to the finishing order of Rd 7 Shun Koide in HFDP WITH B-MAX RACING took pole position for Rd 9 with Jin Nakamura (Mobility Chukyo TOM’S 320 TGR-DC) as a fellow front-row starter.
Rin Arakawa (B-MAX RACING 324) and Seita Nonaka (PONOS Racing TOM’S 320 TGR-DC) shared second row in third and fourth respectively. Kaylen Frederick (Pilot ONE Racing with B-MAX) would try to recover from the back of the grid as he did not finish in Rd 7.
Start of Round.9■Nonaka overtakes three cars at the start
Rd 9 saw another wet conditions, but major difference from Rd 8 was that the standing start was chosen for the first time this season due to heavier rain.
It was Nonaka who got the best start of the field, as he swept around the outside of Turn one and two to overtake three cars to take the lead from Koide.
Yuga Furutani (Deloitte. HTP TOM’S 320) also got a good start to move up to third ahead of a bit slow starting Nakamura, only to slightly go off the track at Turn three, allowing Nakamura and Arakawa to ease past him.
In the early stages Nonaka and Koide, both of whom had earned two wins so far, led the race under increasingly lower visibility, followed by Nakamura with 2.7secs gap. Rikuto Kobayashi (Mobility Chukyo TOM’S 320 TGR-DC) passed Furutani to place fifth behind Arakawa.
Seita Nonaka（PONOS Racing TOM'S 320 TGR-DC）
■A fog brings out safety car
As Koike was beginning to whittle the gap to Nonaka the safety car was brought out on lap seven due to a thick fog.
With the ever-changing fog making it difficult for the safety car to pull in the race reached the 30-min time limit, and Nonaka took his third win ahead of Koide and Nakamura. Full points were given as the race covered 16 laps, more than 75% of the required laps.
DRAGON (TEAM DRAGON 324) grabbed the master class lead at the start to make it back-to-back win.
