September 29, 2019 Rd 20 Okayama International Circuit

Miyata wins JF3 series’ last race, tying up with Fenestraz on 8 victories

Sacha Fenestraz (B-Max Racing with motopark) Ritomo Miyata(Collora Chukyo Kuo TEAM TOM’S)

Ritomo Miyata(Collora Chukyo Kuo TEAM TOM’S)

　Rd 20 of the Japanese Formula 3 championship took place on the 29th September at Okayama International Circuit where the temperatures had rapidly risen early in the morning in the heat of mid-summer sun, and it was Ritomo Miyata in Corolla Chukyo Kuo TOM’S F317 who won the last race in the series’ 41 year-long history with a perfect lights-to-flag triumph. He also grabbed the fastest lap of the race, tying up with the 2019 champion Sacha Fenestraz (B-Max Racing with motopark F3) on eight victories.

　The podium had the same lineup as in Rd 19 as Fenestraz placed second and Sena Sakaguchi (Corolla Chukyo Kuo TOM’S F317I) running as a substitute driver for TOM’S third.

■The race sees the same podium lineup as Rd 19

Sena Sakaguchi(Collora Chukyo Kuo TEAM TOM’S)

　According to the order of the second-best times in the Saturday’s qualifying Miyata had taken pole position with Fenestraz as a fellow front-row starter, followed by Sakaguchi, Enaam Ahmed (B-Max Racing with motopark F3) and Yoshiaki Katayama (in YTB by Carlin).

　Although placing sixth behind Katayama in the second-best times Charles Milesi (YTB by Carlin) had been relegated to the tail of the grid for running over the speed limit on pit lane, moving up Hiroki Otsu (ThreeBond F318), Toshiki Oyu (TODA FIGHTEX), Ameya Vaidyanathan (B-Max Racing with motopark F3) and Shunsuke Kohno (RS FINE K&N F318) by one grid each.

　Clear skies spread out in the Okayama region on Sunday morning, raising the air temperature to 28 C and the track temperature to 34 C.

　When the race started at 11:20 am for 25 laps Fenestraz got a stunning getaway from second, while Miyata got a bit sluggish start, but managed to retain the lead by largely steer towards Fenestraz, forcing the B-Max driver to lock up his brakes into the first corner. Sakaguchi followed the leaders.

　Another sluggish start for Ahmed in P4 delayed Otsu starting right behind him, allowing Katayama and Oyu to ease past them to fourth and fifth respectively. Struggling for speed Ahmed also saw Otsu to get past him at the hairpin.

　Milesi made up four places into ninth from the end of the field before the opening lap had even been completed after passing two cars at turn one.

■DRAGON makes it back-to-back Master class wins

DRAGON(B-Max Racing with motopark)

　Miyata quickly set about pulling away, setting a flurry of fastest laps of 1m23.467 on lap two, 1m23.460 on lap three and 1m23.352 on lap four, and while the closing stages saw slightly longer times as his tyres degraded he ran in less than 1m 24 secs on almost all the laps, taking a sweeping victory.

　Just unable to lap under 1m23.500, Fenestraz on the other hand was left about 3.5 secs behind from Miyata as the race hit the halfway point, which would further expand to over 5 secs in the closing stages. Even similar good times on the last several laps to those from his rival did not allow Fenestraz to catch Miyata.

　Katayama played out a close battle with Oyu chasing within a second of him throughout the race to snatch fourth position behind Sakaguchi. Otsu scored the last point in sixth.

　DRAGON proved himself as the Master class champion when he made back-to-back wins with his 11th victory of the season.

　The last season for the Japanese Formula 3 championship has wrapped up with Sacha Fenestraz as its last champion and Ritomo Miyata as the last race winner, and a new drama will begin in 2020 now in the Japanese Super Formula Lights championship. We Can’t wait for the season opener!