Jensen Marold won the AU4 Championship after taking two race wins in the Queensland Raceway finale. Image: Supplied
Marold put on a performance well beyond his years to take two wins from three races and claim the Gen2 championship by just six points over Manson.
It is Marold’s second consecutive AU4 title after taking the Gen1 honours in 2025.
Unlike last year when he won with utter dominance, this year’s Gen2 battle required a level of consistency fighting against one of New Zealand’s best emerging talents.
In the Gen1 class for the older-spec Mygale chassis, Jackson Culver entered the finale just one point clear in the standings.
Consistency and a heartbreaking Race 2 disqualification for title rival Koby Wilson saw Culver claim the crown by just five points.
Marold began the weekend perfectly, taking pole position for Race 1, 0.16s clear of Manson.
William Beck threw a spanner in the works to take pole in qualifying for Race 3, beating Marold to the punch by just 0.04s.
Manson, meanwhile, could only manage fifth fastest to start Race 3 as he struck traffic in qualifying.
The reigning New Zealand Formula Ford champion showed he meant business in the opening race on Saturday, sweeping by Marold at the first corner to take the lead.
With mid-pack chaos erupting behind, including off-track excursions of Xavier Babbage-Hockey, Jamie Lee-Su, and Lana Flack, Marold put his head down and worked to catch the leader.
With 15 minutes remaining, Marold caught Manson and took the lead, never looking back and taking victory by 1.9s over Manson with Joe Imbrogno rounding out the top three.
Wilson took the Gen1 honours ahead of Lewis Gotch, while Culver settled for third after hassling the leaders all the way.
The Race 2 grid was set by the fastest lap from the opening race. Fastest laps recorded in Race 1 put Marold and Manson on the front row once again.
Manson got the jump over Marold for a second time, leading the first lap before the red flag waved when Angus Baills collided with Babbage-Hockey at Turn 3 and ended up buried in the gravel, while the latter limped back to the pits with a right rear puncture.
The extended delay for the Baills recovery left only five minutes remaining when the green flag waved once more, during which Manson held the lead and took the win to put himself back in the championship lead over Marold.
Wilson and Culver battled all the way to the flag for Gen1 honours, in which a photo finish saw Wilson victorious by just 0.06s.
Unfortunately, Wilson’s title charge came to an end when he was disqualified from Race 2 for a technical infringement, handing Culver the win and blowing the title fight wide open, with Gotch now right in the mix.
Marold took the lead early in the third and final race of the weekend and never relinquished it, leading home Beck by 3.6s.
While Manson had been promoted to third in the closing stages thanks to a Brock Burton spin, it was not enough to overcome Marold in the title fight.
Back in the pack, Culver needed to finish third in class to secure the Gen1 crown, and ran fourth for several laps behind Rugby Mangan as Wilson and Gotch scrapped for the lead.
Culver worked his way past Mangan with 12 minutes remaining, where he stayed until the flag.
While the AU4 championship is complete, the category now heads to the Australian Formula Series at The Bend Motorsport Park.
Running three rounds from December 3-20, the summer championship utilises the current FIA Formula 4 regulations with the Tatuus F4 T421 Gen 2 chassis, with 12 races total.
Entries for The Bend are now open to Australian and international teams.