Supercars star to tackle NZGP
Broc Feeney, Supercars race winner and runner-up in the 2024 championship, is an intriguing addition to the grid for the 69th New Zealand Grand Prix (NZGP).
The 22-year-old will line up for Bruin Beasley’s Mtec Motorsport team and take on some of the best future talent in formula racing, as well as Red Bull Ampol Racing Supercars team-mate Will Brown.
The race is taking part on the weekend of February 7-9 at Highlands International Motorsport Park in what will be the final round of the 2025 Castrol Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Championship.
Feeney will replace American Josh Pierson. The latter has been a front runner in this season’s series but is committed to a clashing IndyNXT test ahead of his second season in IndyCar’s main feeder series.
Like many of his rivals, Feeney started racing in karts in 2013, and won regional and national titles, but unlike his Highlands rivals and Brown he did not progress down the single-seater route.
He went straight into the Australian Toyota 86 Championship and became the youngest race winner in the series at just 15 years old.
In 2021, after Super 3, he won the Dunlop Super2 Series with Triple Eight Race Engineering and became a Supercars driver for 2022 when Jamie Whincup retired from a full-time driving role in the team. He has significant GT3 experience too having finished third overall for Triple Eight in 2022.
Despite the NZGP marking his single-seater debut, he’s looking forward to the challenge.
“I’m pumped to be coming over for the grand prix at Highlands,” says Feeney. “It will be my first race in an open wheeler and I’m super excited to challenge myself.”
Feeney will face what are likely to be future F1 and IndyCar stars when he lines up against Red Bull Junior Arvid Lindblad, podium finisher Nikita Johnson and race winners Matias Zagazeta and Zack Scoular, as well as rising Australian single-seater drivers Patrick Heuzenroeder and Nicholas Stati.
Beasley is confident that with some circuit knowledge, Feeney will settle in quickly and could go well, as drivers doing one-off appearances have in the past with his team.
“Having Broc for the prestigious NZGP is exciting,” says Beasley. “It's going to be a steep learning curve, but I’m sure he will be competitive. Having qualified second and third last year with Callum Hedge and Jacob Abel, I’m confident we can give him the tools to be where he needs to be.”
