10/20/2013 Round 15 Fuji Speedway

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Chiyo Scores An Upset Victory for His 2nd Consecutive Win in the Rainy Final Round
Takaboshi Tops off the Season with A Victory in the F3-N Class

The Rd 15 of the Japanese Formula 3 Championship was held in the final battlefield at Fuji Speedway. While Katsumasa Chiyo almost dominated the qualifying session Takamoto Katsuta pipped the B-MAX ENGINEERING driver at the post on a lap that the chequered flag appeared with a 0.095 faster time of 1:34.372, securing his second pole position of the season. “I just couldn’t seem to adjust the car setups to the condition changes, so I had to adjust myself with my driving. I’m glad I took pole,” said the PETRONAS TEAM TOM’S driver. Shota Kiyohara of HFDP RACING placed 3rd. Mitsunori Takaboshi topped the F3-N class once again. “I placed second in the practice on Friday, so I took a risk of using untried setups for qualifyings. It really paid off and I posted best times 4 tenths ahead of the second lead in both of the qualifyings,” revealed the NDDP RACING driver. Nanin Indra-Payoong of TOM’S SPIRIT placed second in the class.
It was unfortunately raining on Sunday, and all the cars lined up on the starting grid for Rd 15 on wet tyres. It was Katsuta who got a good start and snatched the holeshot, while Chiyo lost his balance on turn 1 and had no option but to allow Tomoki Nojiri and the HFDP RACING duo Kiyohara and Nobuharu Matsushita to move past. However, the TODA RACING driver lost his position even before the opening lap was completed, and Kiyohara and Matsushita came together on turn 1 on lap 2, which brought Chiyo back to 2nd. It took time for Matsushita to collect himself again, and when he was handed a drive-through penalty for the contact with his team-mate his chance of finishing in the points completely disappeared.
Katsuta pulled out about a 3 seconds lead on Chiyo by the end of the first lap but it was reduced to less than 2 seconds at the end of lap 2. Struggling with a lack of grip the Tom’s driver had his brake locked through the Dunlop corner and went wide off the track, losing the lead to Chiyo. Despite managing to stay in second he found himself already 2.3s behind the new race leader as he crossed the start/finish line, and the gap expanded further to over 8 seconds while he was surviving furious catch-ups from Yuhi Sekiguchi of B-MAX ENGINEERING.
The Chiyo’s momentum seemed unstoppable while after managing to fend off the pursuer Katsuta had now to continue his driving with his engine warning light on. Having set the fastest lap on lap 7 Chiyo romped home well clear of 17 seconds ahead of Katsuta. “I made a mistake on turn 1 just after the start, but I’m glad I always maintained over one second lead once I grabbed the lead,“ recalled Chiyo. ”Now I feel I was finally able to prove myself.” The B-Max driver rounded out this Fuji race weekend with 2 wins. Sekiguchi fought well to finish 3rd albeit being powered by a 2012 Toyota 1AZ-FE.
In the meanwhile Takaboshi got a textbook start without repeating the screw-up in the previous round that led him to lose the race. Extending 8 tenths of lead he had at the end of the first lap to over 3 seconds a lap later the 2013 F3-N class champion topped off the season with his 11th victory. Indra-Payoong was too busy battling Kiyohara to spare time for aiming at the lead, and ended up holding on to second place from Koizumi, who took the bottom step of the podium 3 times in a row.

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