Manson storms to first FR Oceania win

Sebastian Manson became the second Kiwi this season to win a race in the 2025 Castrol Toyota FR Oceania Championship when he dominated the second race of the weekend at the Hampton Downs International Motorsport Park.

He became the fourth different winner in five races as a remarkably tight championship develops in New Zealand. 

The grid for the second race in each Castrol Toyota FR Oceania weekend features an order that is the reverse of the top eight finishers form the first race on Saturday and that left Nikita Johnson on pole position for M2 Competition alongside team mate Manson. Behind them on the second row Shawn Rashid and Patrick Heuzenroeder would start third and fourth for mtec Motorsport.

For Saturday’s top four runners it was eighth on the grid for Arvid Lindblad, seventh for Zack Scoular, sixth for Will Brown and fifth for US talent Josh Pierson.

Johnson made the best getaway as the field streamed into turn one, but Manson, on fresher tyres only used in morning qualifying, had plenty of grip and pace and went through into the lead within half a lap. He never looked back and once he had a two second lead over Nikita, he cruised home to his first win, a big moment for yet another one of New Zealand’s rising single seater drivers.

“It feels great. I probably shouldn’t be that excited about a reverse grid race but it does feel good,” said the Auckland youngster after the race.

“We were quite aggressive on strategy and the idea was to get ahead and maintain it through the race, so it’s great we were able to do so.”

Johnson could do little about the Kiwi’s pace but was happy enough to take second after a lonely drive. Having lost the lead to Manson on the first lap he settled into his own race and for most of the 18 laps was a lonely runner a couple of seconds behind the leader, but also a couple of seconds ahead of the battle for third place, which raged throughout as Patrick Heuzenroeder fended off championship leader Arvid Lindblad and Supercars champion Will Brown.

Lindblad had made a blinding start – as had Brown – and both were in contention within half a lap. Heuzenroeder prevented any hope of victory for Arvid, however, and it took until lap 12 when Patrick left a tiny gap for Arvid around the infield, which the British ace was happy to take. He moved quickly away as Brown took his turn under his fellow Australian’s rear wing. Behind Brown, it was very close between Pierson, Scoular, Rashid, Shin and Crosbie for places in the top ten.

As the laps counted down, Johnson started to close on leader Manson as Lindblad closed in on him. On lap 14 Lindblad was three tenths faster than his rivals ahead and catching the leaders at least looked possible but there simply weren’t enough laps and at the chequered flag Manson took a delighted first place to improve his championship position, Johnson second and Lindblad a seriously impressive third.

Heuzenroeder held on well to take fourth ahead of Brown, Pierson, Scoular, Rashid, Shin and Crosbie.

2025 Castrol Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Championship – R2 Hampton Downs Race 2