TOPICS
Seita Nonaka takes lights-to-flag win to set up title showdown
Seita Nonaka（PONOS Racing TOM'S 320 TGR-DC）
2024 Japanese Super Formula Lights series’ sixth Suzuka event finally entered Rd 18 race to wrap up its program, and according to the finishing order of Rd 16 Seita Nonaka (PONOS Racing TOM’S 320 TGR-DC) had claimed pole position with Souta Arao (HFDP WITH TODA RACING) in second and the Rd 17 winner Rikuto Kobayashi (Mobility Chukyo TOM’S 320 TGR-DC) in third.
About three hours after Rd 17 race the formation lap started at 0:25pm under more heavily overcast sky than in the morning.
Start of Round.18■Nonaka retains his lead into the first corner
Nonaka was able to retain his lead into the first corner, and Arao and Jin Nakamura (Mobility Chukyo TOM’S TGR-DC) followed him.
Kaylen Frederick (Pilot ONE Racing with B-MAX) was the most aggressive of the field on the opening lap, taking the advantage of fresh rubber to overtake Kobayashi in fourth at the start.
Nonaka set the fastest lap of the race with 1m53.751 on lap three, but unlike in Rd 16 was unable to extend his lead over closely tailing Arao to more than a second for the majority of the race, the two pulling away from Nakamura in third.
Amid a three-way battle with Nakamura and Kobayashi Frederick’s five-second penalty was announced for his jump start. The B-Max driver continued was unable to get ahead of Kobayashi in the early stages.
Nonaka began to open up his lead on lap 10, and ended up 3.031 secs ahead of Arao at the flag.
Having never been in the top contention during this weekend Shun Koide (HFDP WITH B-MAX RACING) settled for fifth behind Nakamura and Kobayashi. Yuga Furutani (Deloitte. HTP TOM’S 320) rounded out the points in sixth.
Nonaka’s fifth victory put him within just nine points of Koide at the top of the standings, setting up a title showdown for the next Motegi round.
Nonaka and Nakamura■Imada makes it back-to back master-class wins
In the meanwhile, master-class saw battles being fought among the four cars led by Nobuhiro Imada (JMS RACING TEAM) who snatched the lead at the start.
Makoto Fujiwara (TEAM DRAGON 324) rose to second on lap five, and despite a five-second time penalty given on lap seven for his jump start continued to push on to mount a challenge to Imada.
He finally overtook Imada on lap 10 to lead home, but was unable to extend his advantage to more than five seconds, allowing Imada to make it back-to-back wins. The result also kept the master class title fight still alive until the season finale.
Seita Nonaka（PONOS Racing TOM'S 320 TGR-DC）
Podium of Round.18
Kaylen Frederick（Pilot ONE Racing with B-MAX）
