There is just one round to go in the 2024 Castrol Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Championship, and 17-year-old Southland driver Alex Crosbie sits sixth in the points after the action at Ruapuna over the weekend.
Crosbie qualified sixth fastest for the first race of the weekend on Saturday, lamenting that he had made a few mistakes on his push laps.
“I wanted to be a wee bit higher,” he said after the session, having been third quickest in the final practice session the previous day.
Crosbie made a good start to Saturday’s race and spent the entire race in fifth behind experienced American Jacob Abel and teammate Kaleb Ngatoa.
“Kaleb and I had the pace,” he after the race, “but it is hard to pass here. It is good in a Formula Ford but different in these cars.”
Nevertheless, fifth place in the race was a good start to the weekend and left Crosbie fifth in the championship overnight and just ten points behind Canadian Patrick Woods-Toth in the Rookie Championship.
Qualifying for the feature race, the prestigious Lady Wigram Trophy race, was the first item of business on Sunday, and Crosbie managed the eighth fastest time.
“It was a quicker lap than my time in Saturday qualifying, but others went faster again. I didn’t quite have the pace, although I was the quickest of the Giles Motorsport cars.”
That meant he would start the feature from eighth, but first, he contested Race 2 of the round, where he would start fourth.
He lost one place off the line to Ngatoa and had championship leader Roman Bilinksi get past during the race. “Once Roman got past, he didn’t make too much ground in front of me,” said Crosbie on his sixth-placed finish.
From eighth on the grid in the feature, Crosbie finished eighth, but he pressured Race 2 winner Michael Shin all the way.
Shin received a warning at one point for exceeding track limits as he worked hard to keep the Kiwi behind, and then made a mistake late in the race, after which he quickly moved to prevent Crosbie from making a pass.
“I just didn’t have the pace through Pothole,” said Crosbie, referring to one of the corners on the Ruapuna layout which leads to one of the few passing opportunities on the track.”
The final round of the championship takes place at Highlands Motorsport Park in Cromwell this weekend with the feature race, the New Zealand Grand Prix.
Alex lies sixth overall in the points, a fine effort in his rookie season, but he is now 27 points behind Woods-Toth in the Rookie Championship.
”I will need to stay in front of him all weekend,” says Alex.
Ironically while Highlands is the closest track in the series this year to his home track of Teretonga Park, Alex has never raced at the Central Otago layout.
“I have driven an older FT-50 chassis there, but we have not done very many laps. It’s fast and flowing, and I do look forward to racing there,” he said.
