【SUPER FORMULA Round 2 / Okayama】

Youngsters and veterans shine in second round at Okayama.
Sho Tsuboi claims delightful maiden Super Formula victory.

SUPER FORMULA Round 2

Date	2020/09/26-27
Venue	Okayama International Circuit
Weather	Fine
Surface	Dry
Race Lap	50Laps (1Lap = 3,703m)

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Following the season opener in August, the 2020 Super Formula series had its second round at Okayama International Circuit. There were a few changes to the race format and rules. While the qualifying session and race were still held on the same day, now the tire change during the race was mandated, but no refueling required. Therefore, the teams were busy with practicing tire changes repeatedly, as well as the car set up, when the track activity started.

Like the opening round, the commuting foreign drivers had to stay away because of the admission restrictions due to COVID-19. In addition to this, several Japanese drivers, who took part in 24 Hours of Le Mans in the previous weekend, were also absent because of their quarantine period. As a result, Ukyo Sasahara (Team Mugen) got his second opportunity this year. And Mitsunori Takaboshi (Buzz Racing with B-Max), Kodai Tsukagoshi (ThreeBond Drago Corse), Yuichi Nakayama (Carrozzeria Team KCMG), Ritomo Miyata (Vantelin Team Tom’s), and Sena Sakaguchi (Kondo Racing) stepped in for the absentees.

Miyata and Sakaguchi pulled double duty, as they were regular competitors of the Super Formula Lights championship, which also had races as supporting activities at the weekend.

For Q1 of the qualifying session, the competitors were divided into two groups. Nick Cassidy (Vantelin Team Tom’s) was the fastest in Group A, while one of the leading drivers in the free practice on the preparation day, Yuhi Sekiguchi (Itochu Enex Team Impul), failed to move on to Q2. In Group B, Miyata set the fastest time, and Sakaguchi was third, both of which were good enough for Q2. Ryo Hirakawa (Itochu Enex Team Impul), who won the previous round from the pole position, made his way into Q2 by setting the seventh-fastest time in his last attempt, after staying below the cut line for most of the session.

Miyata performed well in Q2, too. His best time, 1’12″646, was the fastest of all, but Hirakawa won the battle for pole position in Q3 after all. The Team Impul driver had steadily been improving the car set up step-by-step on his way to Q3, and it paid off in the all-important lap, which led to the second consecutive pole position for him.

Even though being beaten by Hirakawa, Miyata still sat on the front row. Sacha Fenestraz (Kondo Racing) secured the third grid, followed by Tadasuke Makino (TCS Nakajima Racing) and his teammate Toshiki Oyu. As for the P.Mu/Cerumo Inging drivers, Hiroaki Ishiura was sixth, and Sho Tsuboi ended the session in the eighth. Tsuboi went off the track during his qualifying attempt and heavily damaged the car.

The first start of the race was aborted because Sakaguchi crashed during the formation lap, and the red flag was shown. With the distance being reduced from the original 51 laps to 50 laps, the race got underway again. Hirakawa made a clean getaway, but Miyata lost his position, as he was sandwiched between Makino and Fenestraz, who got off the line better than the rookie on the front row.

Then Oyu locked up his tires when he braked to enter the first corner and hit Makino and Fenestraz from behind. The two victims had to retire on the spot because their cars spun and halted.

As Makino’s car stranded on the track, the Safety Car came out, and the race restarted from Lap 8. Going through the first lap incident better than others, Tsuboi already moved up to second at this time. Ishiura and Cassidy were running in third and fourth respectively, and Sekiguchi, who had qualified lowly 15th, managed to come up to sixth.

When the tire change window opened, several drivers came into the pit immediately. Among the top six, Tsuboi and Sekiguchi made their stop to change tires on Lap 11, and the race leader Hirakawa followed their path on the next lap. He was still leading when he rejoined the race, but Tsuboi rapidly closed the gap with him, as Hirakawa’s tires hadn’t warmed up properly yet.

Using the overtake system, they fought hard each other, but Tsuboi made a brilliant move at the hairpin corner at the end of the back straight, from the outside, to pass Hirakawa. Now Tsuboi was the leader among the drivers who had completed the mandatory tire change.

The race was still in the early stage, and more than half of the field were to come in to change tires. The interim leader Ishiura was pushing hard in the clean air to build a gap, which was enough to compensate the time needed for his tire change pit stop. At the end of Lap 30, he visited his pit when he had about 36 seconds lead against Tsuboi.

Ishiura returned to the track still ahead of his teammate. Then we saw an exact replay of what Tsuboi did to Hirakawa, as he closed the gap quickly and overtook Ishiura at the hairpin corner!

Now Cassidy was the only driver in front of Tsuboi, but the gap between them was too small for the Kiwi to remain in the lead after his pit stop, so the Japanese was the effective race leader. On Lap 48, Cassidy steered to the pit lane. He found himself running in third, ahead of Hirakawa, when he resumed racing, and managed to keep the position until the end, despite the cold tires during the first laps of his second stint.

The fight for the first continued, and Tsuboi’s lead was less than a second, but he kept his cool and saw the checkered flag first. This was his maiden victory in his second season in Super Formula. Ishiura had to give way to his young teammate at the track in Okayama, where has been his happy hunting ground, but he still looked delighted with the team’s one-two finish.

Behind Cassidy, Hirakawa and Sekiguchi finished in fourth and fifth, respectively, which meant Itochu Enex Team Impul earned a double point finish and remained at the top of team ranking. Many expected Miyata to fight for the leading positions, especially after seeing his qualifying performance. While he dropped down to ninth at the end of the race, the youngster still got some points, getting through the close battles for the position.