
Photo: Bruce Jenkins
M2 Competition’s Arvid Lindblad won a soaking wet final Formula Regional Oceania race at Manfeild.
The conditions were so bad that the safety car had to lead the field throuh the first four laps, and was doing so on the fifth too when red flags waved.
After a 20-minute break, and with no sign of rain in the sky, the race restarted behind the safety car again and with lap six kicking off proceedings. The field finally did a rolling start at racing speeds on lap eight, and the top two of Lindblad and team-mate Nikita Johnson immediately broke away while a train formed behind M2’s Sebastian Manson in third.
A lap later Kiwi Motorsport’s James Lawley spun off at the final corner and could not get restarted, leading to the safety car coming out on lap 11 as the sun began to shine.
Racing did not resume until lap 15, and MTEC Motorsport’s Patrick Heuzenroeder tapped the rear of Manson at turn one. That unsettled his car and allowed Heuzenroeder to get past into third, with Manson immediately trying to get back past but not finding any room.
The order of the top 10 was all but settled following that. Lindblad pulled away to take his fifth win of the season by 2.12 seconds, Heuzenroeder was 7.244s behind and Manson was 11.716s behind the winner.
From lap 21 to 23 there were attacks by Giles Motorsport’s Tommy Smith on M2’s Enzo Yeh for sixth, but he could not pressure him into a mistake, and Giles’ Barrett Wolfe had a big off at the final corner on lap 15 that included a trip through the gravel but he managed to rejoin the track without assistance.
Race results (27 laps)
Pos | Driver | Team | Time |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Arvid Lindblad | M2 Competition | 37m54.989s |
2 | Nikita Johnson | M2 Competition | +2.120s |
3 | Patrick Heuzenroeder | MTEC Motorsport | +7.244s |
4 | Sebastian Manson | M2 Competition | +11.716s |
5 | Matias Zagazeta | M2 Competition | +12.956s |
6 | Enzo Yeh | M2 Competition | +13.758s |
7 | Tommy Smith | Giles Motorsport | +13.787s |
8 | Zack Scoular | MTEC Motorsport | +14.342s |
9 | Josh Pierson | MTEC Motorsport | +15.591s |
10 | Michael Shin | M2 Competition | +16.474s |
11 | Shawn Rashid | MTEC Motorsport | +16.635s |
12 | Jett Bowling | Kiwi Motorsport | +20.461s |
13 | Nicholas Monteiro | MTEC Motorsport | +20.720s |
14 | Nicolas Stati | Kiwi Motorsport | +27.760s |
15 | Alex Crosbie | Giles Motorsport | +41.554s |
16 | Barrett Wolfe | Giles Motorsport | +49.774s |
Ret | James Lawley | Kiwi Motorsport | |
Fastest lap: Lindblad, 1m08.384s
Championship standings |