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Katsuta - Luckless Pole-Sitter

Blessed with fine weather in the rainy season the Japanese Formula 3 Championship was held in the next battlefield at Okayama International Speedway. In the good conditions a number of fierce battles were fought. The Rd 6 marked the first pole of this season for Takamoto Katsuta of PETRONAS TEAM TOM’S, who had alone qualified with a time of under 1.25s (1:24.969). He looked somewhat dissatisfied though, with not having beaten the record time. “With sum of my quickest sector times I could have even reduced the time by some tenths. I also made errors.”
The second position was secured by his team mate Yuichi Nakayama, who had been 2 tenths of a second behind Katsuta. “I was running 3 tenths faster than my fastest lap from the previous attack, but I slightly went off the track in sector 3. If I had kept going until the end…,” he was unhappy too that his consecutive pole-takings ended at 5. Behind him came Tomoki Nojiri of TODA RACING, Nobuharu Matsushita of HFDP RACING, Katsumasa Chiyo of B-MAX ENGINEERING and Shota Kiyohara of HFDP RACING.
Mitsunori Takaboshi of NDDP RACING topped the F3-N class again. Ryo Ogawa of TOCHIGI LE BEAUSSET MOTORSPORTS placed second on his debut in motorsport, followed by Nanin Indra-Payoong of TOM’S SPIRIT.
Even though the air temperature remained almost the same at 28 degrees C as in the qualifying the race was expected to be tough even for a total of 18 laps with significant rise of track temperature from 38 to 43 degrees C. As Katsuta said proudly before the race, “I am good at start,” he got away best into the first corner ahead of Nakayama, followed by Nojiri with Chiyo behind, who had risen from 5th place. Matsushita had to stop quickly on Attwood Curve due to an electrical problem.
In the F3-N class Takaboshi got a good start from the lead, followed by Ogawa while Indra-Payoong dropped to 5th. At the end of the opening lap Takaboshi swept to a huge lead of 1.7 seconds over the second lead.
While gradually opening up his lead after the close battle on the opening lap Katsuta was looking to comfortably enjoy it till the end, but his car suddenly slowed down on the back straight on lap 7 with white smoke rising and stopped. This engine failure shattered his second victory dream of this season, just awarding him one point for having set the fastest lap. Nakayama maintained the unexpected top spot to a sweeping victory. “Katsuta was faster in the early stages, but I was catching up with him, so I wish I could have battled him a little longer. Well, but I’m glad I was able to win,” said the Tom’s driver, who achieved 5 consecutive victories. Nojiri finished 2nd, the highest place of the season for him, followed by Chiyo, who picked up his third podium finishes of the season.
In the F3-N class Takaboshi and Ogawa were keeping their positions at some distance away from each other. Behind them a close scrap over third was going on between Hiroshi Koizumi of HANASHIMA RACING and Indra-Payoong. Koizumi was fending off a number of fierce overtaking attempts from Indra-Payoong, but went off the track when the two collided on Attwood Curve on lap 7, although Indra-Payoong barely stayed on the course and kept the acquired position to earn his 6 consecutive podium finishes.
Takaboshi claimed his 6th victory in the class. “I was sure I could win as long as I made it in the start. I was suffering from ailing rubber in the closing stages, but dealt with it with my driving skills.” Ogawa made a successful debut with finishing second.

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