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It was his secondvictory in the 2025 Castrol Toyota Formula Regional OceaniaChampionship. A happy Scoular’s second place brought himlevel on points in the overall standings with Nikita Johnsonwith just four races remaining in this season’schampionship. Series leader Arvid Lindblad was fast, butcould not progress beyond sixth in the tightly-matchedfield.
“I needed to keep calm and just make sure Irestarted well and followed all the rules,” he said in thewinner’s circle. “I was aware of the pressure but justfocussed on not overheating the rear tyre and looking afterthe front tyre.” Starting from pole position on thereverse format grid after finishing eighth on Saturday, Yehdidn’t make the best start and it was M2 Competitionteammate Sebastian Manson who rocketed away and into thelead.
Fellow Kiwi Zack Scoular also made a great start andlaunched himself from the second row of the grid into acomfortable second place as they surged into the firstcorner. Further back the cars were three and fourabreast going into the corner – a very quick one andCanadian James Lawley went wide and into the dirt and thenspun back across the track collecting Kiwi Motorsport teammate Jett Bowling – who hadn’t made the best of starts -putting both into the gravel with damage. Both cars,unfortunately, would not make the restart, reducing thefield to 15 cars.
That light accident – the firstrace incident of the 2025 championship - brought out theSafety Car and a brief halt to the race. After twolaps under caution, the race proper finally got underway onthe sixth full lap. Manson got away well managing to holdoff Scoular, and further back Lindblad made a brave movearound the outside of the first turn to pass Matias Zagazetafor sixth.
Next time around in turn one GilesMotorsport’s Tommy Smith, M2’s Michael Shin and KiwiMotorsport’s Nicholas Stati were three abreast squabblingfor a top ten position when Stati ran wide enough to puthimself into the unforgiving gravel. That brought theSafety Car back out again to retrieve the car, costing therace another few laps before proceedings got underway againon lap 13 of 25. At the green the leaders kept stationbut further back Lindblad tried the same move at turn one onPierson, but Enzo Yeh was also on the outside line and Arvidbacked out, before trying again the next timearound.
Manson meanwhile, had built a decent earlylead of around half a second with the race’s fastest lapon lap 14. Patrick Heuzenroeder was a further half a secondback with Yeh and the Pierson and Lindblad battle a furthersecond in arrears. Scoular continued to push theleader hard over the next few laps and as the fieldcompleted 18 laps, Zack was just four tenths behind.
Acouple of laps later and Heuzenroeder was on their tail.Manson though – with one reverse grid race win to hiscredit so far in the season – looked in control and atease out at the front. Round 01: 10 – 12 January2025, Taupo International Motorsport Park Round 02: 17– 19 January 2025, Hampton Downs International MotorsportPark Round 03: 24 – 26 January 2025, Manfeild,Circuit Chris Amon Round 04: 31 January – 2 February2025, Teretonga Park, Invercargill Round 05: 7 – 9February 2025, Highlands Motorsport Park,.
