A great start for 18-year-old Kiwi Louis Sharp was the foundation for an impressive debut win in the first race of the first round of the 2026 Castrol Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Trophy.
It was Sharp who made the best start in his mtec Motorsport entry, racing around the outside of pole-sitter Ugo Ugochukwu to lead out of turn one. Despite continual pressure from the M2 Competition driver, he did just enough over the next 18 laps of the 3.8km track to take the win.
“I got a great start and a great first turn, and then it was just about trying to look after the tyres and hold Ugo off as he was very quick,” said Sharp afterwards.
“The push to pass gives us a bit of strategy in terms of options, but it is still hard to pass with the aero wash, so I was fully aware how important a good start would be.”
Sharp was only ever able to build a lead of around half a second ahead of Ugochukwu, and it got even harder for the Kiwi from lap 12 as he came under repeated attacks by the American, who was just a couple of tenths behind with five laps of the 18 to run. An impatient Ugo locked up on one attempt on lap 13, and that seemed to take the edge off his attack. They would remain in that order until the flag.
Behind Sharp and Ugochukwu, Hitech’s Kanato Le took third and the final place on the podium after a solid race, holding off a charging Ryan Wood in the closing laps.
A clean start for the first race meant it was very busy indeed in the pack throughout the first lap as drivers jostled for position ahead of the availability of the new ‘push to pass’ feature for this year’s Trophy – and that came as they started the second lap.
Once the two leaders had built a lead over the rest, the group immediately behind them attracted the crowd’s attention. That comprised Hitech team mates Le, Jin Nakamura, Ryan Wood, Freddie Slater and Zack Scoular.
Within a few laps, Wood had passed Slater and was quickly onto the rear wing of Nakamura, who was holding fifth position from the start.
It wasn’t until the start of lap 11, however, that Ryan used his push to pass to blast by Jin on the front straight for fourth. And that was where the Supercars star would stay, despite his best efforts and a clear speed advantage over Nakamura in the middle section of the circuit.
Scoular, too, went well, passing Slater for sixth on lap four. He then set about Wood ahead but was repassed by Slater as the Brit settled into his first Hampton Downs race. They would finish sixth and seventh. Behind them, Sri Lankan Yevan David had a relatively quiet race for Kiwi Motorsport to take eighth.
A fierce battle for the lower places in the top ten was resolved in favour of Red Bull Junior Ernesto Rivera, who just managed to hold off Australian James Wharton. They would finish ninth and tenth, respectively.
Seb Manson made up a few positions early on, and by lap two was up to 12th and harrying 11th-place runner Nolan Allaer. He finally got past on lap five but was passed later by China’s Yuanpu Cui.
Kalle Rovanperä had something of a baptism of fire, running strongly in the early laps and threatening a tight group from eleventh through to sixteenth before a wild off on the exit of Turn 1. He got it back on the tarmac – of course – but dropped to 18th and settled into a battle with F4 USA Champion Cooper Shipman. A ten-second penalty for contact with the American would drop him further down the final finishing order.
The field goes again later today at Hampton Downs, when the top eight finishers will be reversed to form the front portion of the grid. That puts David in pole position with Slater alongside in what promises to be an even closer race.
All the weekend’s remaining action will be livestreamed on TGRNZ’s YouTube channel, and all races will be live on Sky Sport NZ. Tickets to come along to the race weekend are still available at https://nextgennz.flicket.co.nz
Header Image: Joel Hanks
