Photo: TGR NZ
Kiwi Motorsport’s Josh Mason and James Penrose won Formula Regional Oceania’s two Sunday races at Manfeild.
Mason won the reversed-grid race, passing pole-sitter Ryan Shehan straight away and building a comfortable margin up front until Giles Motorsport’s Louis Foster made his way into second.
Foster, who had started seventh on the grid, was the fastest driver in the field and once in clean air he hunted down Mason to set up a late battle for victory that was decided by less than half a second.
Shehan finished third, with Jacob Abel coming home fourth after putting up a strong fight to Foster, and championship leader Charlie Wurz kept out of trouble to take sixth place.
Wurz started on pole for the longer third race, which awarded the Dan Higgins Trophy, with Foster alongside him on the front row and David Morales and James Penrose on row two of the grid.
Penrose passed Morales straight away for third, with Callum Hedge also fighting his way past the American who had a dissapointing opening lap that included contact with another driver.
Wurz did enough to keep Foster at bay through lap one, and built a lead of just under half a second that he would hold for most of the race while Penrose trailed a further three seconds back.
During the race’s second half it looked like rain would be on its way, but that was not the source of the drama to come as the race was turned on its head on lap 19 of 27 when Wurz had a big lock-up and moments later Foster drove into the back of him.
It sent Wurz spinning and led to Foster bogging down in the grass, with Penrose inheriting the lead while the pair dropped down to sixth once they managed to return to track.
Penrose had been keeping an eye on Hedge, but once in the lead he started to pull away and won by 2.844s.
Liam Sceats finished third, ahead of Abel, Morales and Wurz, who leaves Manfeild with a six-point championship lead over Hedge.
A drive-through penalty for Foster meant he finished far outside the top 10, as did Billy Frazer who was spun around on lap two by an out-of-control Mason.
The incident led to Mason retiring, Frazer having to fight from the back and Shehan also needing to go on a recovery drive to finish 10th as he was blocked and ended up on the grass as the pair in front collided.
Results round-up
Race 2 (22 laps)
1 Josh Mason Kiwi Motorsport 23m54.595s
2 Louis Foster Giles Motorspot +0.454s
3 Ryan Shehan Giles Motorsport +4.194s
4 Jacob Abel Kiwi Motorsport +6.195s
5 James Penrose Kiwi Motorsport +6.707s
6 Charlie Wurz M2 Competition +7.242s
7 Callum Hedge M2 Competition +8.488s
8 Liam Sceats M2 Competition +9.140s
9 David Morales M2 Competition +11.941s
10 Tom McLennan Kiwi Motorsport +14.471s
FL: Foster, 1m04.469s
Dan Higgins Trophy (27 laps)
1 Penrose 29m21.845s
2 Hedge +2.844s
3 Sceats +5.578s
4 Abel +6.748s
5 Morales +7.172s
6 Wurz +8.764s
7 Ryder Quinn M2 Competition +10.802s
8 Adam Fitzgerald Giles Motorsport +18.652s
9 Chloe Chambers Giles Motorsport +19.335s
10 Shehan +21.486s
Pole: Wurz, 1m03.941s
FL: Foster, 1m04.502s
Championship standings
1 Wurz 212 2 Hedge 206 3 Abel 182 4 Penrose 159 5 Sceats 143 6 Morales 141 7 Quinn 121 8 Mason 135 9 Shehan 124 10 Chambers 110