Lindblad in control in Dan Higgins Trophy race

Britain Arvid Lindblad continued his dominance of the feature races in this season’s Castrol Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Championship – winning the Dan Higgins Trophy race at Manfeild – Circuit Chris Amon after a rain interrupted 27 laps.

Lindblad’s win and team mate Nikita Johnson’s second made it 300 podiums in the championship over the past 20 years for M2 Competition. The race started under the Safety Car, was stopped and had another Safety Car period before it really got underway, but it didn’t phase the class act in this year’s championship.

“It would have been nice if we had been able to get a complete race but I understand the Safety reasons as to why we didn’t,” said Lindblad afterwards, having won his third straight series feature race and extended his lead in the championship to 40 points.

“It wasn’t easy at the end, it was drying very fast and I knew these tyres are easy to overheat so I was trying to look after them.

“I assumed most people would go in the last corner late and try to get the run out of there so I thought I would do something different on the restart. On the first one I was waiting for it but then decided just to go but on the second I knew as soon as it went green I was going to go.”

With rain bucketing down the first start was planned to begin under the Safety Car but conditions worsened and after five laps race stewards called a halt. The cars remained on the grid for around 15 minutes when the weather made a distinct improvement and the rain stopped.

Back under the Safety car the cars were finally released on what was lap six of the actual race and Lindblad held the field a long time before stepping on the gas in the fast final corner of Manfeild’s 3.03km layout. It was a perfect getaway and he was already a few car lengths ahead of second placed Nikita Johnson as the cars came over the start line in a thick cloud of spray.

Within a lap the two leaders were already stretching their advantage while further back Tommy Smith for Giles Motorsport and Zack Scoular – the winner of the earlier Sunday race – were having an early dice for position. Within three laps Lindblad had a lead of over a second and a half and he and Johnson had put a big gap on third placed Sebastian Manson, who had a bog train behind him led by an impatient Patrick Heuzenroeder for mtec Motorsport.

At the end of lap eight Canadian James Lawley spun off on the final corner and couldn’t get going off the wet grass and that quickly brought out another Safety Car.

The field kept going while the stranded Kiwi Motorsport car was removed and they got underway for the third time on lap 14 – just over half race distance in the Dan Higgins Trophy feature. Lindblad and Johnson were immaculate again and quickly established a lead over Manson once more. This time, however, Heuzenroeder wasn’t going to get stuck behind the Kiwi and made a pass exiting the first turn to take third and set off after the two runaway leaders.

As the race settled down in the still damp conditions, with ten laps to go, Lindblad held a one and half second lead over Johnson, with Heuzenroeder a further two seconds in arrears. Two seconds back from him was a train comprising Manson, Matias Zagazeta, Enzo Yeh – going well again for M2 Competition – Smith, Scoular then Michael Shin and Josh Pierson.

Pierson would pass Shin for ninth on lap 22, enough to secure fourth overall in the points race but that was the only action in the still challenging conditions and at the flag it was Lindblad by just under two seconds from Johnson, Heuzenroeder with fourth placed Manson holding off Zagazeta, Yeh, Smith, Scoular – who drops to third in the championship points behind Johnson- Pierson, Shin and the rest.

With Red Bull Junior Lindblad now with a firm grip on the championship – the drivers head to New Zealand’s South Island for Round 5 next weekend at the daunting Teretonga Raceway just outside of Invercargill.