Zack Scoular secures win

Fresh tyres and a clear road ahead gave Kiwi Zack Scoular his second win of the 2026 Castrol Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Trophy at Taupo.

His victory margin was 8.4 seconds over Freddie Slater with Mtec Motorsport team-mate Ryan Wood nabbing another podium in third. It was the biggest margin of victory in this series so far this year.

“I was able to control the race from start to finish,” says Scoular. “That was good after I made a few mistakes yesterday, so it’s awesome to win and another good result for the team.”

Conditions had changed again at the Taupo for the weekend’s third race on January 18. The morning’s rain and wet track was gone and replaced by dry, but cold and windy conditions.

Out of contention for a win on Saturday, Scoular opted for a tyre change during the race and clocked a blistering one minute 23.095 towards the end to secure pole.

M2 Competition driver Slater lined up alongside, with Saturday race winners Wood and James Wharton on row two.

Scoular who just managed to get to turn one ahead with Slater and Wood slotting into second and third as Saturday’s other winner James Wharton got locked out of a challenge for the lead after a great start. 

Scoular and Slater – on fresher tyres – made an early getaway and were over two seconds ahead of Wood at the end of lap one, with Wharton, Sharp, Ugo Ugochukwu, Ernesto Rivera, Jin Nakamura, Kanato Le and Yevan David in pursuit.

The field stretched out quickly over the opening five laps with plenty of jockeying for position a little behind the leaders in the top 10, which Sharp assumed the lead of on lap four ahead of Wharton and Rivera, who had a big lock-up also on lap four.

Lap five and it was all on with Rivera and Le making decent contact at turn one, getting away with it but causing major congestion with some thrilling side-by-side stuff throughout the fifth lap.

A charging Seb Manson battled his way into the main pack by lap seven and was challenging David for eighth when he was tagged by a recovering McLaughlin. All managed to continue but Seb had lost plenty of time.

There was some chaos at the end of lap 12 when David went straight on at the final chicane after out braking himself. It was all on for those around as they tried to make a gain out of the mess in the battle for the lower top 10 places. 

Red Bull Juniors Rivera and McLaughlin emerged in convoy to start lap 14 ahead of Le and Cui, with David down to 11th and Ugochukwu continuing his smooth recovery drive in 12th.

McLaughlin came under massive attack from his challengers on lap 17, and it gave the fans a moment reminiscent of Mika Häkkinen’s great move on Michael Schumacher at Spa all those years ago when first Jin Nakamura and then Cui went around either side of the Irishman using their push-to-pass system.

Everyone made it into and out of the final chicane intact, with Nakamura ahead. Sadly, it all came to nothing a few corners later for Cui, who had to slow dramatically with damage to his front suspension.

Scoular, meanwhile, sailed serenely to another win. Slater had no answer to his speed but was happy enough with second, Wood was third. Louis Sharp was fourth and Wharton a lonely fifth.

Woods secures Denny Hulme

Ryan Wood, pictured above with the Denny Hulme Memorial Trophy, took out the big prize in race four weekend of the Formula Regional Oceania round at Taupo.

A faultless performance saw the New Zealander take the lead early, maintain it after a safety-car period and manage his tyres and pace perfectly for a famous victory.

“This means the world,” he says. “When I was little, I won the Denny Hulme certificate at kart nationals so to win that trophy is very special indeed for me.
“I can’t thank my team enough and to do it with so many people who have been influential in my career here today. Being a Kiwi, I never thought I could win this trophy. It’s great to be racing at home.”

Starting on pole position after an epic performance in wet qualifying on the morning of January 19, Giles motorsport’s young Aussie gun Jack Taylor made a clean getaway but it was Wood alongside who made the best start. Kanato Le was away well for Hitech and put Taylor into third on turn two as the field sorted itself out behind. 

In control of the race very early, Wood settled into a lead of around a second over Le in the early laps as Sharp held station about a second behind the Hitech driver. 

There was then a decent five-way battle evolving between American Nolan Allaer, race-three winner Zack Scoular, the second Red Bull Junior in the race Fionn McLaughlin, rally legend Kalle Rovanperä and Ricardo Baptista.

Ugo Ugochukwu continued his calm progress up the order with a clean pass on David to move into sixth on lap six before closing rapidly on Slater in fifth ahead. A pass was inevitable and it came at the end of lap seven. Ugochukwu pulled away from the fast train led by M2 Competition team-mate Slater and set about catching Tayler in fourth.

Slater, who had climbed to second in the championship, ruined his race on lap 10 as he took to the grass and dropped to 14th and one place behind Rovanperä, who was finding some race form in his first full feature race in the trophy.

By lap 12 – effectively halfway – Wood had extended his lead slightly to 1.5 seconds, but there was drama behind as Scoular made a mess of the final chicane and clattered into Rivera before coming to a stop in the gravel with front suspension damage. That meant an inevitable intervention by Callum Crawley in the safety car.

Action in the bunched-up field as the drivers got the green light on lap was inevitable, and it wasn’t good news for the leading trio as it brought Ugochukwu fully into play for the final phase.

As Wood led the field slowly into the restart, a perfectly judged restart through the last corner gave him a handy lead into the first turn as Le and the rest slotted into place.

Taylor was under threat quickly from Ugochukwu, the young Aussie defending extraordinarily. The two went side by side, but the battling gave the opportunity for Nakamura to attack and the Hitech driver passed Ugochukwu for fifth on lap 18. 

Nakamura then had an enormous moment in the final corner a lap later trying to pass Tayler, and that allowed Ugochukwu to repass taking David with him.

Wood was long gone, however, making the most of the clear vision ahead to push home the advantage of excellent tyre management as the degradation on the abrasive surface began to set in on drivers behind the Kiwi. 

Le and Sharp also looked to have established a safe margin for the podium places – both five seconds ahead of Taylor, who was engaged once more in a massive scrap for fourth with Ugochukwu. The latter finally made it through at the start of the penultimate lap.

After an absorbing race, it was that man Wood – who must have caught the eye of many single-seater scouts from major teams in Europe – who raced home. In the process he moved into the top five in the points ahead of round three at Invercargill.

Le was a strong second for Hitech, with Sharp third and Ugochukwu’s fighting drive was rewarded with fourth. Nakamura was fifth. 

The iconic New Zealand series prize, which includes in its design the trophy given to the 1967 world champion for his great victory in the 1974 Argentina Grand Prix when he won from 10th on the grid, was presented to Wood by Denny’s sister Anita.