◎ Cassidy Dominates from Start to Finish in Rd. 2
　 F3-N: Ogawa Claims His First Win

Rd. 2 of Japanese Formula 3 Championship was held at Suzuka Circuit on Sunday April 19. In the qualifying on Saturday Nick Cassidy of PETRONAS TEAM TOM'S posted a best time of 1m52.646, 5 tenths clear of his team-mate Kenta Yamashita.

"The outcome of the first race was regrettable, but it cannot be helped," said Cassidy. "The second race is going to be longer with 17 laps but I am not worried", he showed enthusiasm to revenge the demotion to 10th place in the previous race. The 3rd grid was secured by Mitsunori Takaboshi of B-Max Racing team with NDDP, who had won the season opener after being promoted from 2nd place, and 4th by his team mate Lucas Ordonez. Ai Miura of EXEDY RACING TEAM topped the F3-N class and Ryo Ogawa of TOM'S qualified 2nd. Miura was expected to make it back-to-back win

● Tricky Conditions for Rd.2

● Takaboshi and Yamashita Battle for second spot

It was rather Takaboshi who was being threatened in the latter stages as Yamashita was whittling the initial gap of over 2.5s and with 2 laps to go made good use of some back markers to close in right behind Takaboshi. However, the winner of the first race kept his ground and never yielded 2nd place to secure his second podium finish. Cassidy eased home and claimed a real victory, with Takahashi finishing 4th having overtaken Ishikawa at the chicane on lap 4, firmly defended closely charging Ishikawa and Fukuzumi on the same lap and taken advantage of the momentum to overtake Ordonez as well at the chicane on lap 9.

● Miura Misses out Straight Wins as Ogawa Grabs His First win

In the F3-N class not only Miura but also Ogawa each got a good start to keep respective positions. A different class car running in between the two might have widened Miura's lead, but it worked out in Ogawa's favor when Miura was overtaken on the straight on lap 2. Once Ogawa put his car just behind Miura a lap later and set the fastest lap of the class on lap 4 he started playing furious catch-ups and took the advantage of a Miura's slipup at the Spoon to further reduce the gap before slipstreaming on the home straight on lap 6 to complete his overtaking at the first corner with no difficulty. Since then the TOM'S driver eased away from Miura in a steady manner to score his first win ever in the class. "Once I took a lead I ensured the variation of my lap time would be less than 5 seconds".

It was his long and the most coveted victory in the class and a consecutive podium finish. The highest rank that he has scored so far was a 3rd place in 2013 when he started his F3 career as a wild card. B-MAX Racing Team racer DRAGON was running alone throughout the race and took the bottom step of the podium in a row. The constant lap times that he showed indicate we can expect him to join a battle between Ogawa and Miura from the next round on.