Adhikari Leads Home BITW 1-2 in Suzuka Pre-Q

Newly crowned Independents Trophy co-champion Asim Adhikari lead home a 1-2 result for Best In The World Motorsports in the Pre-Qualifying race at the Suzuka Circuit.

The Nepalese driver would go lights-to-flag, fending off all comers in the thirty minute sprint race after qualifying on the pole position an hour before. Fellow front-row starter Tommy Douglas, Darren Older Jr., and Gia Van Dycke all showed the intention to pass the Lamborghini but never was able to do so. The victory would be secured when Anita Horford, Adhikari’s teammate, would pass the Belgio Ferrari on lap 13 and would play rear gunner for the team leader for the remainder of the race. Gia Van Dycke would lose sight of the front two and would end up finishing in third place.

The other drivers that were in second position during the race, Darren Older Jr. and Tommy Douglas, both suffered near identical spins at turn 1 on lap 5 and 13 respectively. Both would spin off into the paved runoff area and return to racing undamaged but down the field with no possibility of scoring points. That wouldn’t be the last of the drama to hit the Commonwealth Group driver, as he was damaged in the resulting road block caused by a spinning Helena Boveri in the S-Curves; the ICE-3 driver would end up finishing eleventh and Older Jr. fourteenth. Tommy Douglas would run a clean race after his spin and would finish eighth.

The other major incident from the Pre-Qualfying race saw Carlton Cho and Leandro Moreira both spin off at 130R after the Pulsar driver ran into the back of the LKM Lamborghini. Moreira was too far back to make an attempt at the slipstream pass through the fastest corner on the track but ran into the back of the part time Lamborghini without making an attempt at avoiding action. A fifteen second penalty was assessed to Moreira for causing an avoidable collision, dropping the Pulsar Corvette out of the advancing Top 17, and allowing one off entrant Yuya Kurosawa of the Toshio Race Team to partake in the rest of the weekend’s proceedings with them now finishing seventeenth. Carlton Cho would finish fifth with Nikolas Hirvonen being the main beneficiary of the incidents around them, giving the Globex Scopio Lister their best Pre-Qualifying result in fourth.

The other major entries that did not finish in the top seventeen were the Onyx Racing Saleen and Independents Class winner in Zhuhai, China in Nathan Scott of Minarae. Both drivers would get stuck behind the Takahashi Porsche of Ronnie Fitzgerald early in the race and neither of them would make any progress after passing the Irishman.

Race Results – After 16 Laps

Pos	#	Grid	Driver	Team	Time/Retired
1	41	1	Asim Adhikari	Best In The World	30:53.986
2	11	5	Anita Horford	Best In The World	+0.752
3	5	4	Gia Van Dycke	Belgio	+2.465
4	91	9	Nikolas Hirvonen	Globex Scorpio	+6.257
5	89	7	Carlton Cho	LKM	+12.723
6	87	10	Diego Mauricio Batistuta	JLD	+14.979
7	39	12	Jose Pablo Mazzacane	Kjellerup	+16.411
8	73	2	Tom Douglas	JLD	+16.996
9	12	6	John Magnus	Aeroracing	+17.699
10	97	11	Alexi Melvanov	Chris Short	+18.896
11	17	20	Helena Boveri	ICE-3	+19.355
12	6	15	Roland Davidson	Gulf	+19.605
13	69	23	Kastazumo Nakaya	Luxray	+20.784
14	56	3	Darren Older Jr.	CWG	+21.175
15	18	16	Chiara Rossi	ICE-3	+21.933
16	40	19	Mattias Kjellerup	Kjellerup	+22.149
17	99	13	Yuya Kurosawa	Toshio	+22.560
18	51	14	Quentin Bisping	Euromotor	+24.555
19	50	26	Dawn Granger	Euromotor	+26.122
20	94	17	Niklas Svanberg	Loyer	+26.451
21	30	21	Milan Vukovic	Onyx	+27.122
22	77	22	Nathan Scott	Minarae	+27.510
23	20	25	Nazreena Nasser	Kiwi	+28.412
24	13	18	Andoni Garrido	Aeroracing	+28.866
25	80	24	Kenji Katayama	Katayama	+29.854
26	7	8	Leandro Moreira	Pulsar	+30.901
27	64	27	Ronnie Fitzgerald	Takahashi	+54.392

Fastest Lap – Car 5 (Belgio Ferrari – Gia Van Dycke) – 1:53.692

Car 7 (Pulsar Corvette – Leandro Moreira) has been assessed a 15 Second Penalty for Causing an Avoidable Collision with Car 89 (LKM Lamborghini – Carlton Cho).