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Super Formula Sugo: Nojiri declared winner in rain-shortened contest

Tomoki Nojiri was declared the winner of a shortened Sugo Super Formula race that featured just two laps of green-flag running in treacherous conditions.

The start of the race was delayed following a crash in warm-up for Naoki Yamamoto at the final corner, with the Nakajima Racing driver falling foul of the standing water that had built up as a result of persistent rain since the start of the day.

After barrier repairs and an extended reconnaissance lap period to assess the conditions, the race began around an hour behind schedule.

With Yamamoto unable to start, poleman Nojiri led the depleted 20-car field under the safety car ahead of Team Mugen stablemate Ayumu Iwasa and TOM’S driver Sho Tsuboi.

Following five laps under caution, the field was released on the sixth lap of a scheduled 51, only for the safety car to be called again almost immediately following a crash for Rookie Racing’s Kazuya Oshima, again at the final corner.

A second attempt at restarting the race was made on lap 13, but again it was short-lived as Sena Sakaguchi suffered a crash at the same point of the track.

This time, the race was red-flagged with the leaders having completed 14 laps, and the damage to the barriers at the last corner meant the race was finally abandoned.

Ayumu Iwasa, TEAM MUGEN (Photo by: Masahide Kamio)

Nojiri was therefore declared the winner, giving the two-time champion his 13th career win, ahead of Red Bull junior Iwasa and Tsuboi.

The positions of the top six didn’t change throughout, meaning Autopolis winner Tadasuke Makino (Dandelion Racing) was fourth, Toshiki Oyu (Inging) was fifth and Kenta Yamashita (Kondo Racing) was sixth.

Kakunoshin Ota suffered an off in the second of the Dandelion cars at the final corner on the second restart, albeit avoiding a crash, dropping from seventh to 14th in the process.

That promoted Yuji Kunimoto (Impul) to seventh ahead of Kazuto Kotaka (Kondo), Iori Kimura (B-Max Racing) and Kamui Kobayashi (KCMG).

Kobayashi was one of the few drivers to gain places during the little green-flag running that took place, climbing as high as eighth at the time of the red flags before the results were rolled back to the end of lap 12.

Half-points were awarded as the race didn’t reach 75% distance, but 10 points for victory plus the three earned on Saturday for scoring pole put Nojiri in the lead of the championship, 6.5 points clear of Iwasa.

   
1
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3
   
   
1
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2
   
Cla Driver # Laps Time Interval km/h Pits Points Retirement
1 Japan T. Nojiri Team Mugen 16 14

29'48.612

      20  
2 Japan A. Iwasa Team Mugen 15 14

+4.318

29'52.930

4.318     15  
3 Japan S. Tsuboi Vantelin Team TOM'S 36 14

+9.780

29'58.392

5.462     11  
4 Japan T. Makino Dandelion Racing 5 14

+15.595

30'04.207

5.815     8  
5 Japan T. Oyu Vertex Partners Cerumo - INGING 39 14

+17.883

30'06.495

2.288     6  
6 Japan K. Yamashita Kondo Racing 3 14

+22.149

30'10.761

4.266     5  
7 Japan K. Kotaka Kondo Racing 4 14

+24.094

30'12.706

1.945     4  
8 Japan K. Kobayashi Team KCMG 7 14

+25.917

30'14.529

1.823     3  
9 Japan Y. Kunimoto ITOCHU ENEX TEAM IMPUL 20 14

+27.945

30'16.557

2.028     2  
10
I. Kimura San-Ei Gen with B-Max
50 14

+35.553

30'24.165

7.608     1  
11 Japan R. Sato PONOS Nakajima Racing 65 14

+38.502

30'27.114

2.949        
12 Japan N. Fukuzumi Team KCMG 8 14

+44.130

30'32.742

5.628        
13 Japan A. Miyake ThreeBond Racing 12 13

+1 Lap

28'04.133

1 Lap        
14 Japan U. Sasahara Vantelin Team TOM'S 37 13

+1 Lap

28'05.891

1.758        
15 Japan K. Ohta Dandelion Racing 6 13

+1 Lap

28'08.395

2.504        
16
H. Taira ITOCHU ENEX TEAM IMPUL
19 13

+1 Lap

28'09.510

1.115        
17 Japan J. Noda TGM Grand Prix 53 13

+1 Lap

28'12.661

3.151        
18 Japan N. Matsushita TGM Grand Prix 55 13

+1 Lap

28'16.198

3.537        
19 Japan S. Sakaguchi Vertex Partners Cerumo - INGING 38 13

+1 Lap

40'53.143

12'36.945        
dnf Japan K. Oshima docomo business ROOKIE 14 4

+10 Laps

9'44.259

9 Laps       Retirement
dns Japan N. Yamamoto PONOS Nakajima Racing 64 0

 

         
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