Sceats claims maiden FRegional Ocania win in Lady Wigram Trophy race

Photo: TGR NZ

Liam Sceats held off Roman Bilinski to claim the Lady Wigram Trophy and his maiden Formula Regional Oceania win in race three at Ruapuna.

Past winners of the prestigious race when run for a junior single-seater category include Roberto Moreno, Ross Cheever, Earl Bamber and Marcus Armstrong.

Bilinski started from pole but it was Sceats who got the better start and was in the lead before the field reached turn one. It was a lead that Sceats would not relinquish. He was pushed hard by Bilinski, who was not able to get alongside Sceats at any point but also never let his title rival build a gap. =

Series sophomore Sceats did not put a wheel wrong, soaking up Bilinski’s pressure and not giving him any opportunities to come through. It was a quiet feature race elsewhere, with only a few battles further down the order.

Patrick Woods-Toth had a lonely race in third place, but behind him Indy Nxt racers Bryce Aron and Jacob Abel were running together. The two American drivers spent much of the race within a second of one anther, but the close running never turned into a battle and the duo finished the race 1.134 seconds apart.

Race two dominator Michael Shin spent the race with Alex Crosbie and Jett Bowling on his tail. Crosbie put up a good fight to try to claim seventh place, but Shin held onto the position. However he finished far behind Gerrard Xie in sixth.

Race results (25 laps)