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Shun Koide romps to fourth win; Master class has unexpected results
Koide and DRAGONThe Japanese Super Formula Lights championship Fuji event unusually had its last race of the weekend on Sunday morning.
According to the finishing order of Rd 10 race Shun Koide in HFDP WITH B-MAX RACING had taken pole position for Rd 12 with Rin Arakawa (B-MAX RACING 324) as another front-row starter Yuga Furutani (Deloitte. HTP TOM’S 320) and Souta Arao (HFDP WITH TODA RACING) would share the second row.
Start of Round.12■Battles for final podium spot intensify early on
As the lights went out at 8:20am under sunny skies and hot and humid conditions with temperatures of 28C pole sitter Koide pulled away to take the holeshot.
Arakawa got a relatively good start, but was soon pulled alongside by Furutani and surrendered the second spot through Turn one.
Jin Nakamura (Mobility Chukyo TOM’S 320) went around the outside of Turn one in an effort to overtake Arao, only to spin at TGR after a brush of contact.
Furutani snatched back the second spot from Furutani through TGR on lap two.
Having started seventh Seita Nonaka (PONOS Racing TOM’S 320 TGR-DC) moved up to fifth after passing Rikuto Kobayashi (Mobility Chukyo TOM’S 320 TGR-DC) and Kaylen Frederick (Pilot ONE Racing with B-MAX) one after another on lap three.
Staying out of these battles behind Koide went on to comfortably extend his lead over Arakawa, which reached 3.915secs at the end of lap five.
Behind the leading duo came Furutani, closely followed by Arao, Nonaka and Kobayashi to scrap for the final podium spot.
The mid-field battles would take on a completely different complexion in the closing stages where Nonaka starred.
He overtook Arao first at TGR on lap nine and then Furutani again at TGR on lap 13 before setting his sights on Arakawa running second.
The Tom’s driver continued to close the gap, but Arakawa held off by just 0.361secs. Nonaka recorded his first podium finish in this Fuji race weekend.
Arao lost another position to Kobayashi, and was given a time-penalty for exceeding track limits more than once.
Kobayashi slightly went off the track at Turn 13. As a result, Kobayashi was fifth and Arao was sixth.
Koide kept pushing, eventually crossing the line 7.372secs ahead of Arakawa and taking his fourth win of the season. Furutani finished fourth.
Rin Arakawa（B-MAX RACING 324）■Fujiwara fails to take third consecutive master-class win
Master class had unexpected results. Having taken back-to-back wins Makoto Fujiwara (TEAM DRAGON 324) looked on course to secure his third consecutive victory, but abruptly suffered a spin at the exit of TGR on the final lap.
‘I was keeping cool, and was able to manage my pace…,’ he said in puzzlement.
The master-class lead battle was now to be fought by DRAGON (TEAM DRAGON 324) and Nobuhiro Imada (JMS RACING TEAM), both of whom had been jostling each other behind Fujiwara.
Just then, Frederic came to a halt due to a fuel system issue, and Imada seized a moment when DRAGON was distracted by the stoppage to get alongside his rival at the exit of final turn.
It was just a thousandths of a second that separated the pair at the line making a last-ditch dash as DRAGON fended off Imada to pick up his third class win of the season, the result that put him just two points behind Imada in the standings.
