Mansell holds off Ngatoa challenge for Manfeild CTFROC victory

Christian Mansell kept Kaleb Ngatoa at bay to win the second Castrol Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Championship at Manfeild in a dramatic affair that saw several competitors affected by the conditions.

The rain had arrived before the race, and drivers faced their first wet outing of the season, with Woods-Toth starting on the pole next to Xie.

The latter got a great launch off the start and took the lead into Turn 1, while Mansell also made a big jump from the second row and jumped ahead of the pole-sitter.

However, Xie’s charge was short-lived as he ran wide at the exit of Turn 3, spinning across the track and narrowly avoiding being collected by the field behind.

Race 1 winner Roman Bilinski found himself forced to pit lane early, with his rain light not working and having also gone off track on contact with Sceats as they avoided the stricken Xie.

Up front, Mansell took the lead upon Xie’s demise and extended his advantage over the opening lap. Ngatoa also got away well and jumped ahead of Woods-Toth for second at Turn 1 on Lap 3.

Jett Bowling was the next driver to find trouble, spinning at Turn 4 on Lap 3.

A spin for Fecury on Lap 4 brought out the Safety Car, with the Brazilian’s car stuck on track but able to resume when the caution was called. Michael Shin also spun as he ran offline to avoid Fecury’s car.

The race resumed on Lap 8 with Mansell leading Ngatoa, Smith, Woods-Toth, Sceats, Lacorte, Crosbie and Probst. The leader got a good launch from the restart but ran wide shortly after, bringing Ngatoa into contention.

Xie, meanwhile, had impressively recovered and worked his way into the top ten, getting past Sherlock and Probst to sit eighth at the end of Lap 10.

Shin dropped down the order with a spin at the exit of Turn 3 on Lap 11.

Up front, Ngatoa had kept Mansell within reach and was only one second behind at the end of Lap 12, the duo having pulled a gap over Smith. Lacorte worked past Sceats to take fifth, while another off for Fecury dropped him to 16th.

With the rain clearing and a dry line forming, Mansell and Ngatoa exchanged the fastest laps over the closing stages, with the Kiwi’s 1:07.898 bringing him to within a second of the leader.

Mansell’s advantage was too much however, and he came home for a 0.686-second victory. Ngatoa was the only one with enough pace to go with the leader, his advantage over third-placed Tommy Smith at over five seconds at the chequered flag.

Pole-sitter Woods-Toth came home fourth ahead of Sceats and Crosbie, while Sherlock recovered from an off-track outing for eighth. Elliott Cleary and Xie rounded out the top ten. Probst was 14th.

The Castrol Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Championship returns for one final race at Manfeild this afternoon, with proceedings beginning at 3.32 pm and shown live on Sky Sport.

Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Championship Race 2 results- Manfeild

Image: Toyota Gazoo Racing (Bruce Jenkins)