Kiwi Nick Cassidy regains Japan F3 lead at Fuji

20 July 2015  /  

Auckland racer Nick Cassidy has regained the lead in the Japanese Formula 3 Championship following a win and a second place in the latest round at the Fuji Circuit.

Cassidy, started yesterday’s race from pole position in his TOM’S Dallara Toyota, where he triumphed wet conditions to take out the win moving him three points ahead of his team-mate Kenta Yamashita from a four point deficit.

“It was a great day, from pole to a win at Fuji” commented Cassidy. “It was a wet race where we made no mistakes and held a good lead to the end”

Cassidy, 20, had a strong reputation as a rain-master when he contested the Toyota Racing Series in New Zealand, winning in the wet and in wet-dry races with ease.

With only two rounds left, Cassidy is the only driver in the 2015 series to have finished on the podium in every race to date.

Cassidy set the fastest lap (1:35.849) in qualifying for race one ahead of Mitsunori Takaboshi (1:35.961) and Katsumasa Chlyo (1:36.099).

Qualifying for the second race of the weekend saw Takaboshi (1 35.209) ahead of Cassidy (1:35.265) with Yamashita third (1:35.269).

Cassidy had taken an early lead but contact between his car and Takaboshi’s dropped him back to second. Yamashita took the win in the second race but Cassidy made sure of second place to take a narrow three point championship lead with a TOM’S Toyota 1-2 result.

“It has been a great weekend for us. I led today's race before being hit but managed to limp a damaged car home to P2, still leading the championship.”

Thirteen of the top fifteen cars were Toyota-powered.

After thirteen races in the series there are just four left (two rounds) remaining. The penultimate round is at the Twin Ring Motegi on 22-23 August.

Race 1 - 15 Laps

1 Nick Cassidy

2 Nirei Fukuzumi

3 Mitsunori Takaboshi

4 Tsubassa Takahashi

5 Kenta Yamashita

Race 2 - 21 laps

1 Kenta Yamashita

2 Nick Cassidy

3 Nirei Fukuzumi

4 Katsumasa Chlyo

5 Struan Moore

Points after 13 of 17 Races

1 Nick Cassidy 96

2 Kenta Yamashita 93

3 Mitsunori Takaboshi 82

4 Nirei Fukuzumi 41

5 Lucas Ordonez    29

Nick Cassidy’s racing career summary is at https://www.driverdb.com/drivers/nick-cassidy/

For further information please contact:

Steve Boyce, Toyota New Zealand Motorsport Manager,

Phone (06) 350 3455 or 0292 442 754 or email steve.boyce@toyota.co.nz

Morgan Dilks, Toyota New Zealand Public Relations,

Phone (06) 351 3216 or 027 511 8622 or email morgan.dilks@toyota.co.nz