Bilinski adds to his FRegional Oceania pole tally at Ruapuna

Photo: TGR NZ

Roman Bilinski topped the times again for his fifth pole position of the 2024 Formula Regional Oceania season at Ruapuna.

Bilinski was already on provisional pole when he improved on his final lap of the weekend’s second qualifying session. A 1m16.818s made him the only driver to lap sub-1m17s at the track this year and put him 0.256 seconds clear of second place after previously holding an advantage of less than 0.03s.

The M2 Competition driver was top of the order through most Q2, although Sebastian Manson briefly held the top time. The 16-year-old Formula Ford racer was driving for Giles Motorsport, and will make his slicks-and-wings debut in either the second or third FRegional Oceania race of the weekend. By the end of qualifying he was down in 12th place, just over a second slower than Bilinski.

Once on top, Bilinski gradually lowered the pace and a 1m17.048s was the time to beat when the chequered flag fell. Title rival Liam Sceats came closest as he went 0.026s slower than than, only for Bilinski to improve further on his final lap. Sceats could not find more pace and qualified second.

A last lap improvement from the debuting Bryce Aron put him third, ahead of Patrick Woods-Toth and Gerrard Xie. Series returnee Jacob Abel qualified sixth.

Michael Shin was at the sharp end early in the session but fell back to seventh on the timesheet by the finish. He will share the fourth row of the race three grid with Alex Crosbie, who improved on his final lap to jump up to eighth place.

Jett Bowling and Kaleb Ngatoa completed the top 10.

Qualifying results