Lindblad pips Johnson for CTFROC Manfeild feature pole in wet qualifying

Championship leader Arvid Lindblad made light work of tricky conditions at Manfeild this morning to secure pole position for the feature race at the third round of the 2025 Castrol Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Championship.

In an M2 Competition front row lock-out, he edged team mate Nikita Johnson – another rising star surely set for big things in his homeland USA or elsewhere – by just two one thousandths of a second. It was one of the closest qualifying margins ever in the 20 year history of New Zealand’s premier single seater championship.

Rain and a soaking wet Manfeild circuit greeted the 17 drivers as they headed out for the second qualifying session of the weekend – this time to find the grid for the afternoon’s 27 lap feature race for the Dan Higgins Trophy.

The changing conditions provided a challenge for both drivers and teams and as the session progressed – and the track started to dry half way through the 15 minute qualifying period – it seemed teams had opted for contrasting strategies.

Giles Motorsport and mtec looked to have opted for a set up that gave them early grip while M2 Competition seemed to have opted for a set up that would come good as the session progressed. Combined with a dry line appearing relatively quickly after the rain paused at about six minutes in, it was the M2 Competition strategy that ultimately proved superior.

In the first half of the session Zack Scoular and Patrick Heuzenroeder  for mtec and Tommy Smith for Giles Motorsport all popped up at the top of timing, but as the track began to dry it was the M2 Competition cars of Sebastian Manson, Nikita Johnson and series leader Arvid Lindblad that started to dominate the top of the timesheets.

The fast laps kept coming and with plenty of grip even in the wet from Manfeild – Circuit Chris Amon’s cambered corners, the times tumbled.

At the end of it all – with the session ended after Giles Motorsport’s Barrett Wolfe slid off into the gravel at Higgins and brought out the red flag – Lindblad had taken pole position, but by the tiny margin over Johnson, with Manson the top Kiwi and just a fraction behind his team mates on the front row. It was another day in the office as far as the future F1 star was concerned.

“The grip was pretty high,” he said. “The way the track surface is here it’s very grippy and we are almost suing dry lines. In the end it was ok but it was difficult as there were slower drivers and I wasn’t able to get into a proper rhythm and I wasn’t able to extract the most out of the tyre when it was there.

“I was looking forward to it when it started to rain, it was a different challenge.”

Underlining M2 Competition’s dominance of the session, Matias Zagazeta and Chinese F4 champion were fifth and sixth. Only Heuzenroeder in fourth prevented a top five lock-out. Smith ended up seventh with Zack Scoular alongside him on the fourth row. Michael Shin and Josh Pierson completed the top ten.

The trophy up for grabs on Sunday afternoon – the Dan Higgins Trophy – is another highly significant one in New Zealand motorsport. Dan was the founding member of leading NZ construction company Higgins – which began locally in the Manawatu region of the North Island – having left Ireland during the Great Depression in the 1950s to begin a new life in New Zealand. The 3.03km track also features a corner named after him. Previous winners include Daniil Kvyatt, Marcus Armstrong and last year’s Oceania Formula Regional champion, Roman Bilinski.

2025 Castrol Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Championship – Round 3 Manfeild – Qualifying 2