Breaking news

Super Formula Sugo

Cassidy explains “scary” race-winning Sugo passes

Nick Cassidy has described in detail how he pulled off the “scary” passes needed to clinch his first victory of the Super Formula season at Sugo.

Jamie Klein

Published: Oct 19, 2020, 3:50 AM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

Nick Cassidy, TOM’S

Reigning champion Cassidy won after overtaking both Naoki Yamamoto and long-time leader Ryo Hirakawa in quick succession, on both occasions getting a superior run through the long, fast final corner before passing along the start/finish straight.

Hirakawa had been leading by as much as four seconds when a safety car was called on lap 20 following a crash for Sergio Sette Camara, which meant Hirakawa, Yamamoto and Cassidy would all pit together and run nose-to-tail for the restart.

At the end of the first lap of green flag running, TOM’S man Cassidy was able to get the better of 2019 title rival Yamamoto, and two laps later he executed a similar move on Hirakawa before going to claim his third career victory in Super Formula.

Read Also:

Describing his passes on Yamamoto and Hirakawa in more detail, Cassidy recalled: “I could see Naoki was making some mistakes at the last corner. The Honda engine is really good up the hill, on a normal run I couldn’t get close to him.

“But he made a mistake, and on that lap I was full throttle in the last corner, which in Super Formula in that moment with half a tank [of fuel] is scary, but I made it work. It was a combination of staying flat, OTS [overtake system], and slipstream.

“It was the same situation with Ryo. I waited one lap, made him use the OTS, and then the next lap I did everything I could. He had some touching [bottoming out], and he went a bit wide, I could stay flat and use OTS, which helped me get the run.”

Nick Cassidy, TOM’S

Photo by: Masahide Kamio

Cassidy qualified fourth, his best grid slot of the year, and ran in that position for most of the first stint as poleman Sette Camara settled into second place behind Hirakawa.

The New Zealander said he was biding his time in the early part of the race but felt he had the pace to get ahead of his adversaries during the pitstop phase.

“I felt strong on cold tyres, so I was quite confident that if I stopped around [the same time as] these guys, I could be stronger on the out lap,” said Cassidy.

“In the first stint, I was waiting for a chance to attack. [The pace] wasn’t bad, we were doing 1m08.1s, 8.2s, Hirakawa was doing 7.8s, then I pushed one lap I did 7.6s, and I knew the speed was there. At that stage you have no idea what everyone’s strategy is, so if you can’t pass there’s no point to push. I just needed to stay there and be patient.

“It was difficult, tyre warm-up was slow this weekend, but on the second set [of tyres] for whatever reason I felt stronger, so I could attack. I took some risk in SP In and SP Out, to get close to these guys, and attack in the last corner and luckily it paid off.”

Nick Cassidy, TOM’S

Photo by: Masahide Kamio

Cassidy now sits second in the championship standings, 15 points adrift of Hirakawa, who extended his advantage with his nearest pre-race rival Sho Tsuboi failing to score.

Impul driver Hirakawa admitted that there was little he could do to counter the speed of his regular SUPER GT teammate as he struggled with his tyre warm-up.

"Usually in SUPER GT, Nick’s speed on cold tyres helps me, but this time it harmed me," said Hirakawa. "I was a bit disappointed about that, but I had the feeling he was simply faster in terms of pace. That said, in the Motegi and Okayama races, I had a tough time [with race pace], but this time I was quicker.

"Both the team and I showed progress in that area, so I want to take that away as a positive. I’m not really thinking about the points situation, and Autopolis is my favourite circuit, so I’m really looking forward to it. To be able to win again, I want to put everything together."

Additional reporting by Tomohiro Yoshita

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Sette Camara caught out by the cold in Sugo crash

Next article Fenestraz 'annoyed' to be wiped out by veteran Nakajima

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

NASCAR warned nearly the full field at Talladega for minimum speed violations

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Talladega II

1 h

NASCAR warned nearly the full field at Talladega for minimum speed violations

Carson Hocevar credits tow truck driver for saving his race at Talladega

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Talladega II

5 h

Carson Hocevar credits tow truck driver for saving his race at Talladega

Brad Keselowski to address questions about NASCAR future and RFK exit at Martinsville

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Martinsville II

6 h

Brad Keselowski to address questions about NASCAR future and RFK exit at Martinsville

Hamlin says Chevy teams 'suck at the teat' of Hendrick on superspeedways

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Talladega II

9 h

Hamlin says Chevy teams 'suck at the teat' of Hendrick on superspeedways

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts