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Round7 [Motegi]
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| ‘May 24 , Round7 :Twin Ring Motegi Participation cars: 9 all-Japan class, 7 National class.Weather:cloudy(dry) |
| Carlo Van dam won the championship at Motegi successively from Suzuka! |
 @The weather did not become so bad, the qualifying was done with temperature 25 degrees, dry condition of track surface 37 degrees.
@Carlo Van dam of the TOM'S took pole position in this session which marked first championship in front race in Suzuka. He is just in the best time "My confidence deepened from the test in Motegi", marked 1'45.604 & 608, and got pole position of the seventh round and the eighth round.
@Van dam's teammate Kunimoto followed next. Followed them,Hironobu Yasuda of ThreeBond who  won the first championship in Suzuka, Takuto Iguchi of TOM'S, Kei Cozzolino of NOW Motorsports, Naoki Yamamoto of hometown Tochigi native placed top 6.
@The seventh round finals formation started at 3:45 p.m. Under it seemed to begin to rain momentarily, the red lights went out.
@Pole-sitter Van dam had a good start and went into 1st corner as the top. Kunimoto, Yasuda, Iguchi followed him. It seemed that there is not big confusion in high rank position at the start, but Iguchi hit to Yasuda between 1st and 2nd corners and Cozzolino spun in this crowd situation. Followers were going to avoid him, and several National classes contacted and went off the track.
@Van dam and Kunimoto completed the first lap with 0.6 second margin. Yasuda, Iguchi, Yamamoto, Nakayama, Nakajima followed behind Kunimoto. However,  early stages, Yasuda couldnft advance up because of the engine trouble, and then it became a match race of Van dam and Kunimoto.
@"I was going to get a margin in beginning the race, but the gap did not become wide because Kunimoto pushed me hard. It was not easy development that I must push it till the last" Van dam said. But also his behind Kunimoto did not have a decisive factor. It began to rain in the middle stage and condition changed greatly, they ran a close race with about 1 second margin, but the order did not change.After all Van dam held on 14 laps and got the pole to win, It is the second win in this season for him. And then He became a point leader. Kunimoto said "The 2nd place is disappointing, but I can satisfy to drive push till the last ".Yasuda was third place, Iguchi, Yamamoto, Nakayama filled up 6th position.
 @Hideki Yamauchi told "If my follower did not step forward, I am not defeated with confidence. I practiced the start that seemed to be my weak point well this time." It became the race of national class as he said. He handled the start well from the qualifying top and cleared 1st corner as the top. Nobody could put pressure to him after that. Moreover, the accident in 1st corner just after a start eased Yamauchi more.
@Alexandre Imperatori hit Masaki Matsushita who did a good start and was going to ahead to 2nd position from behind again. Hideto Yasuoka went off the track to be going to avoid it and lost position with Matsushita. Then Zahir Ali moved up in the second position. Yamauchi already showed even the composure which controlled his pace, when Imperatori overtook to Ali in 3rd corner at the eleventh lap. He won 3 straight victories without being completely worried about rain from the middle stage, and it became the fourth win in this season for him.
Round7/8uMotegivResult |
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