One hand on trophy
Castrol Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Championship leader Arvid Lindblad has one hand on the 2025 title after winning the Spirit of a Nation Cup feature race at Teretonga Park.
Lindblad took his fourth straight feature win in the series, with only the NZ Grand Prix standing between him and an unprecedented clean sweep of the country’s five top single-seater races.
“The weekend was decent, but not to the standard of the previous weekends, and I really wanted to win this race,” says Lindblad.
“The start was always going to be crucial and I made a decent one. I knew I had to send it and make it stick. A lot depended on Matias, but he gave me the room.”
Matias Zagazeta – his M2 Competition team-mate – on pole and on the inside could do nothing to counter Lindblad’s commitment at the start. The Red Bull F1 junior surged around the outside to take the lead. He had tried the move in earlier races, but this one was the most impressive.
Unfortunately, although he took the lead, another off at turn one for Kiwi Motorsport’s Jett Bowling left the American in the wall, so the race was stopped after two further laps under the safety car.
It got back under way on the fifth lap. Lindblad went early and it was the right call as he stole a few car lengths from Zagazeta as they crossed the line to get the action under way again.
At the front, Lindblad was flying. He was several tenths per lap faster than nearest challenger Zagazeta and already 1.2 seconds ahead after three laps.
A few laps later, Lindblad was disappearing up the road with Michael Shin in a lonely second. Zagazeta recovered after a mistake and built a one-second advantage over Patrick Heuzenroeder, giving M2 Competition an impressive one-two-three result.
Kiwi Sebastian Manson made the most of a great start to hold off Zack Scoular and Heuzenroeder to claim victory in the reverse-grid race in Invercargill for his second victory in the series.
Lindblad was fast but could not progress beyond sixth in the tightly matched field and there was an incident that brought out the safety car for two laps. It resulted in Lawley James and Jett Bowling failing to restart following a collision.
“I needed to keep calm and just make sure I restarted well and followed all the rules,” says Manson. “I was aware of the pressure but just focused on not overheating the rear tyre and looking after the front tyre.”
Zagazeta defeated Lindblad in a straight fight on February 1 in the first race of the penultimate round of the Castrol Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Championship in Invercargill.
The 21-year-old rising Peruvian star made a perfect getaway to lead the Red Bull F1 Junior into the first turn by a few car lengths and never looked back.
He kept his rival in his mirrors until a puncture and trip into the gravel trap for Michael Shin brought out the safety car and a premature end to the 25-lap race after 19 laps.
“It was a fantastic race and we made a great start,” says Zagazeta. “The pace was super strong compared to everyone else apart from Arvid who was staying quite close behind. It really it was a question of not making any mistakes.”
Attention now turns to the final round from February 7-9 – the New Zealand Grand Prix meeting – at Highlands Motorsport Park, Cromwell.
