
Photo: Bruce Jenkins
Zack Scoular sliced into Arvid Lindblad’s Formula Regional Oceania points leads by winning the reversed-grid race at Manfeild.
The track was wet in many places for the start, and there was a mix of drivers on wet and slick tyres. Lindblad, from seventh on the grid, and several of his M2 Competition team-mates opted for slicks.
Giles Motorsport’s Alex Crosbie started on reversed-grid pole and despite a lot of wheelspin managed to lead into turn one. However MTEC Motorsport’s Scoular got on his inside and overtook him through the corner, as M2’s Sebastian Manson held third behind.
Nikita Johnson stormed up from sixth to fourth, but the M2 driver then got stuck in a battle with Giles’ Tommy Smith. They traded places three times in the lap, with Smith attempting to get back past Johnson again at the final corner but failing to do so while M2’s Michael Shin – who was on slick tyres – went off.
Shin remained the highest slick-shod runner in eighth, with MTEC’s Patrick Heuzenroeder down in 11th and Lindblad just behind him.
Although the track was drying as water was displaced, Scoular pushed hard on his wet-weather tyres and was two seconds clear after two laps. That became 5.5 seconds after four laps, then 7.3 and 9.4 over the course of the next two. He had a 14s gap at the front of the field when the race was neutralised on lap 12 due to a crash and the arrival of rain.
For the restart on lap 16 of 22, Scoular led Johnson, MTEC’s Josh Pierson and Nicholas Monteiro, and M2’s Matias Zagazeta, Lindblad and Shin.
Pierson had passed Smith for fifth on lap three, then on lap five Johnson had swept around the outside of Manson at turn one and Pierson had followed him past down the back straight.
Two laps later Monteiro went around the outside of Smith at the end of the back straight, and a wide moment for Crosbie at the final corner meant he lost second place. Pierson cleared Crosbie on lap nine, and Manson would have got through on lap 11 had Crosbie not spun and caught his car. At the start of the lap, both had been passed by Monteiro in one move. Manson retired with suspension damage, and Crosbie shed his nosecone but continued.
Heuzenroeder pitted for wet tyres during the safety car period, and the top four broke away on the restart while Lindblad caused a traffic jam and soon plummeted to 14th.
Scoular held off Johnson through the wet remaining laps, with Pierson and Monteiro a distant third and fourth. Yeh and MTEC’s Shawn Rashid rose to fifth and sixth on the road, ahead of Smith and Heuzenroeder. Lindblad finished 46.245s behind the winner in 14th, and had his championship lead drastically reduced.
Post-race, Monteiro and Rashid got five-second penalties that dropped them to fifth and eighth, and Nicolas Stati had a 10s penalty that demoted him one spot to 10th.
Race results (22 laps)
Pos | Driver | Team | Time |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Zack Scoular | MTEC Motorsport | 27m12.735s |
2 | Nikita Johnson | M2 Competition | +0.713s |
3 | Josh Pierson | MTEC Motorsport | +5.827s |
4 | Enzo Yeh | M2 Competition | +7.938s |
5 | Nicholas Monteiro | MTEC Motorsport | +11.985s |
6 | Tommy Smith | Giles Motorsport | +12.758s |
7 | Patrick Heuzenroeder | MTEC Motorsport | +12.935s |
8 | Shawn Rashid | MTEC Motorsport | +15.394s |
9 | Jett Bowling | Kiwi Motorsport | +24.726s |
10 | Nicolas Stati | Kiwi Motorsport | +31.028s |
11 | James Lawley | Kiwi Motorsport | +33.588s |
12 | Barrett Wolfe | Giles Motorsport | +33.699s |
13 | Matias Zagazeta | M2 Competition | +45.921s |
14 | Arvid Lindblad | M2 Competition | +46.245s |
15 | Michael Shin | M2 Competition | +49.498s |
16 | Alex Crosbie | Giles Motorsport | +2 laps |
Ret | Sebastian Manson | M2 Competition | |
Fastest lap: Scoular, 1m07.214s
Championship standings |