Home Formula RegionalFRegional Oceania Lindblad works through the wet to win again in FRegional Oceania

Lindblad works through the wet to win again in FRegional Oceania

by Ida Wood

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
1 Lindblad 236   2 Johnson 196   3 Scoular 191   4 Pierson 167   5 Heuzenroeder 165   6 Zagazeta 139   7 Manson 127   8 Shin 110   9 Will Brown 109   10 Yeh 99