Lindblad and Ross big winners at Taupo

It was a big weekend at Taupo where Formula Regional, Formula 5000s and many more raced hard at the historic event.

The Sixt Rent a Car Taupo GP saw famous faces and cars from all areas of motorsport come to the picturesque circuit.

Many drivers performed across the opening round of the Castrol Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Championship where Australians Will Brown and Patrick Heuzenroeder, plus other rising youngsters fought for the Denny Hulme Memorial Trophy.

British rising star Arvid Lindblad impressed the most, producing a dominant drive to take the feature race.

Despite Matias Zagazeta getting a better start, Lindblad bided his time before launching a successful counterattack.

He went for it around the outside of the opening corner and it proved to be a decisive blow as he cruised to a 5s win.

This forced Zagazeta to settle for second ahead of rising Kiwi Zack Scoular.

Arvid Lindblad flew in the opening Formula Regional round at Taupo. Image: Supplied

“I made my life difficult at the start, it’s not easy to start on the inside here as it is a bit dirtier and I didn’t do a great start,” Lindblad said.

“I was very committed when I saw I had lost the lead that I had to get it back at turn one and I’m very happy that from there I was able to control the race.

“I could feel very quickly that the thermal degradation was a lot higher worse in this race than in the previous two, and the guys behind were very close but after four or five laps I managed to edge away.”

Brown once again finished in the now familiar position of fourth, one sport clear of fellow Aussie Heuzenroeder.

But it was far from a simple race for Brown, who survived a scary moment early on after interlocking wheels with Michael Shin down the long back straight.

The clash sent the Korean into a wild high speed spin which he was very fortunate to survive and recover from with no contact of any sort. 

Matias Zagazeta (centre) celebrates a special win for Peru.

Brown resumed in tenth and returned to the top five by completing a great pass on Josh Pierson at the final chicane that was completed by a four-wheel drift around the outside. 

After snatching fourth from Heuzenroeder he got under the rear wing of Scoular and attacked on the final lap but had run out of grip.

In the morning sprint race, Peruvian Zagazeta scored a breakthrough win fuelled by an astounding start.

He leaped from fourth to first by the time the field arrived at turn 1 and held off teammate Enzo Yeh all the way to the finish.

Yeh ended up dropping to fourth due to a 5s penalty for creeping at the start, promoting Pierson and Lindblad onto the podium.

Heuzenroeder was the leading Aussie in eighth.

“Turn 1 here at Taupo is very, very difficult so it was going to be important to get a good start if I was going to fight for a podium place. We had really old tyres so it was all about managing them after a good start,” said Zagazeta.

“It was big pressure defending so I am really glad to have been able to hold him off.  It’s fantastic to represent my country and to take its first win in New Zealand.”

Dunedin’s Steve Ross won both of Sunday’s F5000 races at the Taupō International Motorsport Park.Image: TAYLER BURKE

It was McRae all the way in the final day of the second round of the SAS Autoparts MSC NZ F5000 Tasman Cup Revival Series.

A dominant Steve Ross led a podium full of cars built by the late Graham McRae.

Driving a McRae GM1, Ross cruised to back to back wins on Sunday.

The 10-lap finale saw Ross win by a huge 7s over Michael Hey and Michael Collins.

Kevin Ingram finished fourth which was enough to retain a slender three-point championship lead over Hey.

Kiwi young gun Kaleb Ngatoa was a standout performer in the assembled field of Formula Atlantics, winning the Historic GP feature in a 1997 Swift DB4 from James Watson, in a 1991 Swift DB4, and Tom Alexander driving Kenny Smith’s 1989 Swift DB4.

Paul Radisich wound back the years in a 1995 Ford Mondeo in the Heritage Touring Cars, winning the opening race before Kayne Scott drove the famed Whittaker’s Peanut Slab Sierra to victory in the other three.

Four HVRA Historic Saloons races featured four different winners, with Oliver Sentch (1974 Ford Escort), Craig Sawyer (1970 Vauxhall Viva), Alan Limmer (1978 Porsche 930) and Karl Sentch (1973 Ford Capri) taking one apiece.

David Hopper took three wins in a 1969 Chevrolet Camaro in the Classic Saloons, with Bryan Ashworth driving a 1962 Daimler Dart to success in the other.

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