Home Featured FRegional Oceania leader Lindblad wins Denny Hulme Memorial Trophy

FRegional Oceania leader Lindblad wins Denny Hulme Memorial Trophy

by Ida Wood

Photo: Toyota Gazoo Racing NZ

Formula Regional Oceania points leader Arvid Lindblad won the Denny Hulme Memorial Trophy, the third race of round one at Taupo.

Although he had pole, Lindblad had to start from the grid’s dirtier side and was beaten off the line by M2 Competition team-mate Matias Zagazeta. But Lindblad went for the outisde line at turn one, which became the inside for turn two. They were then side-by-side through turn three, and Lindblad got back ahead.

Zagazeta attempted to reclaim the lead around the outside of the turn five hairpin, as behind them MTEC Motorsport’s Josh Pierson was shuffled down to seventh from fourth. Ahead of him was team-mate Zack Scoular, M2’s Michael Shin, Giles Motorsport’s Will Brown and MTEC’s Patrick Heuzenroeder.

Brown tried to get down the inside of Shin down the back straight on lap one but could not do it, then on lap three tried the same and this time they made contact. Shin was sent into a spin and dropped to 10th, and Heuzenroeder passed Brown.

Pierson got past Brown around the outside when they reached turn one, then Brown almost drove into the back of him down the back straight and tried getting back past. Enzo Yeh went off on the next lap so team-mate Shin rose to ninth, then he cleared MTEC’s Shawn Rashid on lap six.

Lindblad eventually put a second between himself and Zagazeta on lap eight, and thereon continued to pull away to win the 23-lap race by 5.325 seconds.

“I made my life difficult. It’s not easy to start on the inside here,” said Lindblad afterwards, who was managing his tyres from the beginning due to thermal degradation. “I was very committed when I saw I lost the lead that I had to get it back in turn one. Because I’ve learned already in the previous two races that it’s incredibly difficult to pass here. Happy that I got it done in T1, and then was just controlling the pace from there.”

Brown was the only driver who could match Lindblad’s pace, but had work to do. He got side-by-side with Pierson down the back straight on lap nine but the latter cannily stayed ahead, only for Brown to throw his car around the outside at the final corner. M2’s Nikita Johnson followed him through at turn one.

A few laps later Brown was all over Heuzenroeder, but he spent a long time behind him. On lap 18 they had side-by-side moment mid-lap before Brown made a switchback move at the turn 11 hairpin. They had been right behind Scoular too, but the pass enabled him to break free of them again.

Brown soon rectified that by setting the fastest lap, and forced Scoular into defending through the penultimate lap. He tried the outside of turn one on the final lap and almost touched him at turn 11 too, but was stuck behind and with a 10s penalty for the contact with Shin it meant he finished behind him in eighth.

Race results (23 laps)
Pos Driver Team Time
1 Arvid Lindblad M2 Competition 32m38.824s
2 Matias Zagazeta M2 Competition +5.325s
3 Zack Scoular MTEC Motorsport +10.161s
4 Patrick Heuzenroeder MTEC Motorsport +11.270s
5 Nikita Johnson M2 Competition +15.171s
6 Josh Pierson MTEC Motorsport +15.450s
7 Michael Shin M2 Competition +15.764s
8 Will Brown Giles Motorsport +21.058s
9 Sebastian Manson M2 Competition +23.764s
10 Shawn Rashid MTEC Motorsport +24.163s
11 Alex Crosbie Giles Motorsport +30.575s
12 Jett Bowling Kiwi Motorsport +30.810s
13 Nicholas Monteiro MTEC Motorsport +36.313s
14 Nicolas Stati Kiwi Motorsport +38.958s
15 Barrett Wolfe Giles Motorsport +39.218s
16 Enzo Yeh M2 Competition +1m01.480s
Ret James Lawley Kiwi Motorsport +1m10.506s
Fastest lap: Brown, 1m24.303s

Championship standings
1 Lindblad 78   2 Zagazeta 73   3 Scoular 68   4 Johnson 58   5 Brown54   6 Pierson 54   7 Shin 48   8 Heuzenroeder 46   9 Yeh 37   10 Manson 33