Home Featured Lindblad wins Dorothy Smith Memorial Trophy from pole

Lindblad wins Dorothy Smith Memorial Trophy from pole

by Ida Wood

Photo: Bruce Jenkins / TGR NZ

Arvid Lindblad won the Dorothy Smith Memorial Trophy-awarding third Formula Regional Oceania race at Hampton Downs from pole.

The M2 Competition driver had to hold off an attack from MTEC Motorsport’s Zack Scoular, his closest title rival, on the outside of turn one on the opening lap and they almost touched.

Half a second split the pair through the first four laps, and Lindblad finally broke a second clear on lap seven. His lead did not grow much further until lap 18, the usual distance of a FRegional Oceania race, where he had the advantage on tyre life compared to Scoular and lowered the lap record several times to end the 23-lap encounter 2.911 seconds clear.

On row two of the grid was MTEC’s Josh Pierson and M2’s Nikita Johnson, and they also had an early squabble. Johnson tried passing around the outside of turn two and then the inside of turn three on lap one, the latter move allowing him to get ahead. He then ran wide though so Pierson moved back in front of him, and Giles Motorsport’s Will Brown profited to pass Johnson too. He briefly also nosed ahead of Pierson, then had another go at the final corner but Pierson hugged the inside.

The outside of turn one on lap two was not an option for Brown either, but the inside of turn two was and he moved into third as Johnson held off team-mate Matias Zagazeta behind.

Brown began attacking Scoular on lap four, but did not have the pace to get ahead og him. On lap 11 it all went wrong as the rear end of his car stepped out entering turn one and he went into a half-spin, dropping to eighth behind M2’s Michael Shin.

The second half of the race was spent filling Shin’s mirrors, attempting overtakes twice on lap 18, at turn 13 on lap 19 after Shin defended down the straight following turn one, and twice more on lap 20. Shin locked up into turn one a lap later but for once Brown was not close enough to capitalise, and his attempts at passing on the penultimate also failed.

Johnson ended up finishing a lonely fourth thanks to Brown’s fall down the order, followed by Zagazeta and MTEC’s Patrick Heuzenroeder.

Race results (23 laps)
Pos Driver Team Time
1 Arvid Lindblad M2 Competition 34m06.907s
2 Zack Scoular MTEC Motorsport +2.911s
3 Josh Pierson MTEC Motorsport +7.506s
4 Nikita Johnson M2 Competition +9.137s
5 Matias Zagazeta M2 Competition +12.429s
6 Patrick Heuzenroeder MTEC Motorsport +13.999s
7 Michael Shin M2 Competition +16.031s
8 Will Brown Giles Motorsport +16.345s
9 Shawn Rashid MTEC Motorsport +19.125s
10 Sebastian Manson M2 Competition +26.975s
11 Enzo Yeh M2 Competition +27.496s
12 Alex Crosbie Giles Motorsport +28.028s
13 Nicolas Stati Kiwi Motorsport +29.785s
14 Nicholas Monteiro MTEC Motorsport +30.501s
15 Jett Bowling Kiwi Motorsport +33.617s
16 James Lawley Kiwi Motorsport +44.406s
17 Barrett Wolfe Giles Motorsport +45.979s
Fastest lap: Lindblad, 1m28.340s

Championship standings
1 Lindblad 164   2 Scoular 139   3 Johnson 116   4 Pierson 115   5 Brown 109   6 Zagazeta 105   7 Heuzenroeder 102   8 Shin 87   9 Manson 83   10 Rashid 65