8/4/2013 Round 11 Motegi Twin Ring

画像Clickで拡大します

Nakayama Captures Championship Title with Pole & Win
Indra-Payoong Prevents Takaboshi from Securing the F3-N Class Title This Weekend

Following the wins in the previous race the focus of the Rd. 11 Motegi held on a mild weather on Sunday was whether Yuichi Nakayama and Mitsunori Takaboshi would secure the championship and class titles respectively.
With the rise in track temperature in the qualifying Nakayama was having difficulty adjusting the car setup to the worsened conditions. “The tyres had less grip than anticipated. If I had known the track conditions would change so significantly I would have changed the car setup drastically.”  Instead of breaking the 1:46s level the PETRONAS TEAM TOM’S driver tied with his team-mate Takamoto Katsuta on a time of 1:46.314 before setting 1:46.251, while Katsuta could not set faster times. In the end Nakayama took pole once more, followed by Katsuta, Tomoki Nojiri (TODA RACING) and Nobuharu Matsushita (HFDP RACING) with Katsumasa Chiyo of B-MAX ENGINEERING settling for 5th place. Setting 1:49.215 Takaboshi of NDDP RACING topped the times in the F3-N class narrowly ahead of Nanin Indra-Payoong (TOM’S SPIRIT) who had set 1:49.303.
The machine for Ryo Ogawa of TOCHIGI LE BEAUSSET MOTORSPORTS did not recover from the damage it had suffered during Rd 10 in time for him to start from 3rd place in the F3-N class, so the race had only 12 cars on the starting grid. The temperatures remained almost the same at 31 degrees C for air and 38 degrees C for track, but over the course of 20 laps, 5 laps more than the previous race the strategy of each driver was to be tested.
Katsuta really wanted to nail the start and turn the 2nd spot into good result, but his determination backfired. “I thought I had to take the lead in the start. I felt too much tension, indeed.“ He got a poor start, allowing not only Nojiri and Chiyo but also the HFDP RACING duo Nobuharu Matsushita and Shota Kiyohara to move past him.
Takaboshi also screwed up with his start, demoting himself to the tail of the filed, while Hiroshi Koizumi of HANASHIMA RACING got a great start to take a lead, but soon allowed Indra-Payoong to catch up into the hair-pin corner, and to get ahead of him through the 90 degrees corner. Takaboshi made his way through the field back to 3rd place behind Koizumi as early as on lap 3. The point leader of F3-N class overtook Koizumi in the first corner, and despite being overtaken on turn 3 he did not gave up and succeeded in recapturing his spot on turn 5. In the meanwhile Indra-Payoong built his lead to over 5 seconds ahead of the second lead at the end of lap 3.
It started raining before the 6th lap was completed. Of course the wet conditions were common to every driver on the field, but perhaps only the rain now might have been able to stop Nakayama from enjoying the comfortable lead. However, it stopped raining too early for his rivals to use it to reduce the gaps. While the 2nd-placed Chiyo was going into a solid advantage into the latter stages of the race Matsushita and Kiyohara were edging up Nojiri for the 3rd place. The middle of the field looked so tense for a while, but without making no errors these 3 drivers ended up crossing the line keeping their positions, and Katsuta settled for 6th.
Nakayama clinched the coveted Japanese Formula 3 championship title with 10 wins. “I continued to push till the end without thinking about the results. I now feel more relieved to secure the title as I was naturally expected to do so,” commented the 2013 champion.
Meanwhile, despite having moved up to 2nd place Takaboshi was not able to jeopardize the lead. “I unusually fluffed in the start, and the tyres almost wore out while intensely catching up. But I’ll make it in the next race at Sugo,” he promised.

画像Clickで拡大します

画像Clickで拡大します