MUGEN

2013.6.5

Yamamoto won third place prize even in harsh condition!
TEAM MUGEN eventually made it to podium!

Series name: 2013 Japanese Championship SUPER FORMULA Round2 AUTOPOLIS
Event name: AUTOPOLIS SUPER 2&4 RACE 2013
Course: 4.674km × 54 laps (252.396km)
Qualifying: 2013-06-01 Sat / Rain / Attendance 6,480 (Announcement from the organizer)
Race: 2013-06-02 Sun / Cloudy / Attendance 13,500 (Announcement from the organizer)

The 2013 Japanese Championship SUPER FORMULA Round2 was held at AUTOPOLIS in Oita pre. TEAM MUGEN competed in this race with drivers, #15 Kobayashi and #16 Yamamoto. #15 Kobayashi first entered the Formula Nippon in 2011 and competed in the SUPER GT GT500 last year. It has been two years since his last entry to the one of the domestic top formula races. On the other hand #16 Yamamoto won 4th place in the previous race and got ready for this race.

█   Race
#16 Naoki Yamamoto 3rd place (50 laps: 1hr21mins41.934secs / Best lap: 1min33.386secs)
#15 Takashi Kobayashi Retired (15 laps: 27mins29.857secs / Best lap: 1min42.353secs.)

Both #16 Yamamoto and #15 Kobayashi were ready for the race with dry (slick) tires, however, during the warm-up run, TEAM MUGEN made a decision to change the tires to rain (wet) tires. So then the team had no choice but to remake a setting on the grid.

A drizzly rain continued. The temperature was 15°C. The race started with quite low wind-chill temperature. #16 Yamamoto made a good start from the 3rd position on the grid, and passed the car In front to get 2nd position. Contrarily #15 Kobayashi in the 11th position on the grid failed to make a good start and dropped down to 17th position.

Though #16 Yamamoto in a 2nd position tried to catch up the lead vehicle, the gap between the cars rather expanded. So did the gap between #16 Yamamoto and car behind. The more cars went, the better the course condition got. A drizzly rain continued, but adoption of dry tires seemed to improve the lap time. That was the problem for TEAM MUGEN.

TEAM MUGEN decided to go with the rain tires in the early stage and fuel the tank fully to run through the rest of the laps and make a pit stop, and then after fueling go out with dry tires to finish the race. Lead vehicle seemed to take the same strategy. The car took pit stop at 6th lap and changed to the dry tires.

#16 Yamamoto made a pit stop at next lap and did the fueling and tire change and went back to the course. Owing to the quick pit work, #16 Yamamoto could come back to the course ahead the lead vehicle. #15 Kobayashi made a pit stop after finishing 8th lap.

#16 Yamamoto tied to keep his position, however, the car behind caught up and passed by him and #16 Yamamoto lost his position to down to 3rd position at 13th lap. #15 Kobayashi tried to avoid multiple crashes at the first hairpin curve and went out of the course and lost his position down to 15th position. In 16th lap at the second hairpin curve #15 Kobayashi dived into gravel and finished his race.

Lead vehicle starting with dry tires make a pit stop at 36th lap and went back to the course without tire change ahead #16 Yamamoto with more than 38 seconds. Though #16 Yamamoto tried to catch up the 1st and 2nd vehicles under the wet road condition, he could not make it and remained 3rd position.

Just before finishing the race, due to too much haze, the judging committee determined to stop the race at 50th lap leaving 4 laps. As the result, #16 Yamamoto ended the race with 3rd place prize following the 4th place prize in the previous race and TEAM MUGEN could stand the podium for the first time. At this point #16 Yamamoto got 11 points which is merely 1 point behind the top driver in the series ranking. Now he is ranked as a second (there are other three drivers having the same amount of the points, and his series ranking is 4th due to total amount of wins.)

█ Comment from the team director Tezuka

TEAM MUGEN won 4th place in the previous race and 3rd in this race. Now I see our drivers stand in the center of the podium. We really thank for your support and will not be satisfied with this race and keep doing our best for the next race for the better result. Please cheer for our team.

♦ Photo Gallery (Round2)