
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 |