October 17, 2015
Rd 16 Sportsland SUGO

◎ Cassidy takes another stride towards
　 the championship title with lights-to-flag victory
　 F3-N: Ogawa also picks up 12th win with lights-to-flag

After a series of fierce battles the Japanese Formula 3 Championship has got into the final race weekend at Sportsland SUGO. On Saturday, October 17 the qualifying and the race of Rd 16 were fought in crisp sunny weather with high air and track temperatures, the completely different conditions from the day before would have a great deal of influence on the qualifying results.

● A pole position brings Cassidy a step closer to the title

It was Nick Cassidy who took a pole position for the race. The PETRONAS TEAM TOM'S driver used first two laps for warming up, posting 1m13.888 on the first and 1m13.711 on the second attack with a lap for cooling-down in between. At the same time around Lucas Ordonez of B-Max Racing team with NDDP narrowed the gap to the Kiwi to just three msec, posting 1m.13.714.
The second title lead Kenta Yamashita placed second spot behind his team mate when he posted 1m14.072 but would demote himself behind Ordonez a lap later as he strayed onto the kerb and spun at the Rainbow, forcing him to pit to repair his damaged front wing.
Another title favorite Mitsunori Takaboshi of B-Max Racing team with NDDP settled for fifth place behind Nirei Fukuzumi of HFDP RACING. The six place was secured by Yuhi Sekiguchi, who appeared as a wild card for B-Max Racing team for two consecutive race events. He would have secured third place on the grid but his second best qualifying time was counted as his best time was posted under yellow flags.
"I'm particularly happy because it was more important than ever for me to take a pole position for the Rd 16 race," said Cassidy, "I'm glad to have Lucas between me and Kenta on the grid. I hope to concentrate on my own driving without being bothered from behind."
Once again Ryo Ogawa topped the F3-N class, posting 1m16.656 ahead of Ai Miura of EXEDY RACING and DRAGON of B-Max Racing team.
"I crashed yesterday while the times were improving. I am grateful that the team worked hard and carried out the repair in time for the afternoon sessions. So, I' feeling good today," said the TOM'S driver.

● Cassidy wins Ordonez and Yamashita

The Rd 16 race for 18 laps started 10 minutes late due to a red-flag interruption from the previous Super Formula qualifying. It was only before 4 p.m. when the sun was beginning to go down, reminding us the days have become much shorter than the previous event in August.
Yamashita would have wanted to make at least one ground at the start of the race, but despite a good start, only to see the pole-sitting Cassidy make a better getaway to leap into the first corner in front, and to be rebuffed by Ordonez, even allowing Fukuzumi to close in through the first corner.
In the meanwhile Ai Miura got a strong start in F3-N class as usual, putting her car side by side with Ogawa down the first two bends, but the pole-sitter of the class pulled clear away at turn three, and would escape thereafter.
At the end of the opening lap Cassidy had already built up as much as a 1.5 seconds margin, while the difference between Ordonez and Yamashita was just 5 tenths. Behind them an intensifying battle over fourth position between Fukuzumi and Takaboshi would gradually open the gap to the race leaders. Yamashita also started to lag behind Ordonez on lap three.
With some backmarkers on laps after ten, the lead two successfully avoid them, while Yamashita was held up at the final corner on lap 13, the slowdown that Fukuzumi immediately capitalised to come in his slipstream on the straight and then overtook him to move up to third spot. Although he almost caught up with Fukuzumi just before the chequered flag Yamashita would never regain to the lost ground.

● Title will be decided at the final round as
　 Cassidy wins and Yamashita places fourth
Leading away from pole position Cassidy was never threatened to win Ordonez by 8.7 seconds, his sixth win of the season combined with points he scored for setting the fastest lap and taking another pole position for Rd 17 race put him into the lead in the standings by 10 points as the second title lead Yamashita finished placed fourth.
It was the fourth podium for Ordonez. Fukuzumi celebrated his fifth consecutive podium. Keishi Ishikawa of TODA RACING improved his seventh position on the grid to finish sixth behind Takaboshi. Having dropped to eighth position due to a late start Sekiguchi passed Tsubasa Takahashi of HFDP RACING on lap 15 before taking the chequered flag in seventh position.
"The car has been great from the very beginning this weekend, I always felt comfortable with the car. I got better laps in the race than in the qualifying again today," said Cassidy, "I pushed very hard till the end. I was once caught up behind some F3-N class cars, but I kept cool to handle the situation thanks to the big lead. I hope to wrap up this season with a good result tomorrow."

● F3-N: Ogawa picks up 12 wins from 16 races
　 with sixth consecutive win
In F3-N class not only did he pull away from Ai Miura early on but Ogawa also set about charging on Tairoku Yamaguchi of TAIROKU Hanashima Racing, keeping the gap within a little over a second even with better times on some laps.
"I was always running right behind the car from the different class, so I couldn't fully charge him down the corners due to largely affected downforce," said Ogawa, "However, that instead saved the tyres for closing laps where I set the fastest lap of the race, and I think I found something useful for the race tomorrow." Indeed, he looked quite happy about the feeling he had from the race.
Second place Ai Miura was the last driver not to be lapped by the overall winner Cassidy. DRAGON scored his 15th third place a lap down. Masaru Miura of CMS battled it out with Guillaume Cunnington of FSC MOTORSPORT to snatch the fourth place.