28 September 2014
Rd. 13 Sportsland Sugo
● Matsushita makes it back-to-back wins as a bad luck
strikes race leader Takaboshi
● F3-N title battle still continues as Kubo wins Rd 13
◎ Pole position for Takaboshi and Kubo
Qualifying for Rd 13 was held at Sportsland SUGO on September 27, Saturday to see another close battle. Takamoto Katsuta of PETRONAS TEAM TOM’S set 1m14.834, but it was not recorded as the attack was done when the red flag appeared. Each car was allowed to do just a lap attack when the session restarted with 2 minutes and 20 seconds left, and Mitsunori Takaboshi of B-Max Racing Team with NDDP set 1m14.917 to take his 4th pole position of the season. Interestingly the current point leaders dominated the front rows for Rd 13 as Nobuharu Matsushita (HFDP RACING) qualified 2nd and Kenta Yamashita (PETRONAS TEAM TOM’S) 3rd. “I was able to keep my driving style in the limited opportunity”, replied Matsushita with satisfaction.
Rintaro Kubo set 1m16.957 – he was the only F3-N class driver to break 1m17s. The current point lead of the class Hiroshi Koizumi (HANASHIMA RACING) qualified 2nd but nearly a second behind Kubo.
◎ 2 pole-sitters retain the top spots
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Rd 13 was fought on September 28, Sunday for 25 laps, 7 laps more than the previous race. With the strongest start of the field pole-sitter Takaboshi got the holeshot in to the first corner, keeping Matsushita and Yamashita at bay, while Katsuta lost out to Shota Kiyohara (TODA RACING) off the line to drop to 5th. Kubo got a good start and leapt in to the first corner in the lead of F3-N class.
A leading group of Takaboshi, Matsushita and Yamashita was formed before the opening lap had even been completed, while a little behind them a tooth-and-nail scrap over 4th place was fought between Kiyohara and Katsuta. These 5 were each equally opening up one’s gap every lap until there was a change in this order through the first corner on lap 9 as Katsuta closed in on Kiyohara with each of them holding one’s ground and going off the track before the TOM’S returned earlier to start charging Yamashita next for 3rd place.
◎ Unexpected stall for Takaboshi pushes Matsushita up to top
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It was entirely due to Matsushita’s keeping control of his pace that every time Takaboshi reduced the gap that had reached up to two and a half second in early laps Matsushita opened up his lead again. When his victory appeared almost certain, however, Takaboshi suddenly showed a significant fall-off in pace and stopped near S-turn on lap 18. “The engine suddenly stopped running, maybe due to fuel system issues,” said Matsushita. “My title dream was almost over now, but I want to win the remaining two races, and hopefully people will think I deserve to be called a true champion”. He seemed to have changed his focus in a positive way.
Matsushita was already enjoying a comfortable lead over Yamashita when Takaboshi’s retirement promoted him to the top spot. Now being rapidly charged by Katsuta, Yamashita started to lag behind the new race leader. Katsuta tried to capitalize a back marker in front to overtake but settled for 3rd place as he avoided contact with team-mate.
◎ Matsushita will go into the final race weekend with great advantage in the standings
Notching up 6th win by making it back-to-back wins at Sugo gave Matsushita a huge advantage in the standings, 17 points clear of Yamashita, who had finished in 2nd place, and 18 points clear of Takaboshi
In F3-N class Kubo built up a significant lead early on, while Koizumi was having difficulties with his pace. The Hanashima was passed by Shohei Yuzawa (KCMG) at the first corner on lap 3 and then was also caught up on by a trio of DRAGON (B-MAX RACING), Tairoku Yamaguchi (TAIROKU EXCEED) and Ai Miura (EXEDY RACING TEAM) on the same lap before DRAGON overtook him up to 3rd place at the first corner on lap13 even though Yamaguchi spun at the final corner on lap 12 in to retirement. Despite being largely left behind by Yuzawa as well as the lead Kubo DRAGON went on carefully to take 2 consecutive final podium places.
◎ Koizumi and Kubo to duel at Fuji for F3-N title
Kubo reduced the F3-N class title gap to Koizumi who was 4th to 9 points by scoring his first win since he last won the Rd 8 with a 16-seond advantage at the flag, notching up his 5th win of the season. The F3-N class title battle is likely to be fought till the very last minute.
Having scored 7 points TOM’S Co., Ltd. Secured the 2014 engine tuner title.
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| [Round13 Race Result] |
| |
No. |
Driver |
Team/Car |
Type |
Laps |
BestTime |
Delay |
Ave.Km/h |
Fastest Lap |
Laps |
| 1 |
7 |
N.Matsushita/松下 信治 |
|
HFDP RACING |
Dallara F312 |
25 |
32'05.650 |
|
173.128 |
1'16.283 |
6 |
| 2 |
36 |
K.Yamashita/山下 健太 |
|
PETRONAS TEAM TOM'S |
Dallara F314 |
25 |
32'10.762 |
5.112 |
172.669 |
1'16.526 |
5 |
| 3 |
1 |
T.Katsuta/勝田 貴元 |
|
PETRONAS TEAM TOM'S |
Dallara F312 |
25 |
32'13.545 |
7.895 |
172.421 |
1'16.177 |
10 |
| 4 |
2 |
S.Kiyohara/清原 章太 |
|
TODA RACING |
Dallara F312 |
25 |
32'14.722 |
9.072 |
172.316 |
1'16.451 |
7 |
| 5 |
23 |
D.Sasaki/佐々木 大樹 |
|
B-MAX Racing Team |
Dallara F312 |
25 |
32'15.529 |
9.879 |
172.244 |
1'16.412 |
4 |
| 6 |
38 |
Nanin Indra-Payoong |
|
CERUMO･INGING Jr. |
Dallara F312 |
25 |
32'22.619 |
16.969 |
171.615 |
1'16.573 |
3 |
| 7 |
8 |
T.Takahashi/高橋 翼 |
|
HFDP RACING |
Dallara F312 |
25 |
32'23.655 |
18.005 |
171.524 |
1'16.742 |
4 |
| 8 |
62 |
R.Kubo/久保 凛太郎 |
N |
TOCHIGI Le Beausset Motorsports |
Dallara F308 N |
25 |
32'59.395 |
53.745 |
168.427 |
1'18.073 |
5 |
| 9 |
19 |
S.Yuzawa/湯澤 翔平 |
N |
KCMG |
Dallara F308 N |
25 |
33'15.787 |
1'10.137 |
167.043 |
1'18.697 |
4 |
| 10 |
30 |
DRAGON |
N |
B-MAX Racing Team |
Dallara F306 N |
25 |
33'25.341 |
1'19.691 |
166.248 |
1'18.946 |
10 |
| 11 |
6 |
H.Koizumi/小泉 洋史 |
N |
HANASHIMA RACING |
Dallara F306 N |
24 |
32'15.609 |
1 Lap |
165.347 |
1'19.026 |
10 |
| 12 |
3 |
A.Miura/三浦 愛 |
N |
EXEDY RACING TEAM |
Dallara F307 N |
24 |
32'16.645 |
1 Lap |
165.259 |
1'19.596 |
5 |
| 13 |
13 |
M.Yoshida/吉田 基良 |
|
B-MAX Racing Team |
Dallara F312 |
24 |
33'19.707 |
1 Lap |
160.047 |
1'19.555 |
11 |
| 以上完走 |
|
22 |
M.Takaboshi/高星 明誠 |
|
B-MAX Racing Team |
Dallara F312 |
18 |
23'02.562 |
7 Laps |
173.617 |
1'15.876 |
4 |
|
28 |
T.Yamaguchi/山口 大陸 |
N |
EXCEED MOTOR SPORTS |
Dallara F306 N |
11 |
14'44.828 |
14 Laps |
165.782 |
1'18.642 |
8 |
開始時刻 13:07'00 終了時刻 13:40'00
参加台数：15台 出走台数：15台 完走台数：13台
ベストラップ： 22 M.Takaboshi/高星 明誠 1'15.876 4/18 175.752km/h |
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