Ugochukwu dominates Race 1 to increase championship lead

Championship leader Ugo Ugochukwu went one step closer to the 2026 Castrol Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Trophy today, with a dominant victory at Highlands Motorsport Park.

After a dramatic qualifying session earlier, the laid-back American hammered home his status as title favourite with an emphatic victory, rubber-stamped with the race’s fastest lap on the penultimate tour. It meant Ugo increased his championship lead to 29 points over Freddie Slater, who finished fourth today.

“It’s been a very stressful day overall, I’d say, but I am very happy to get the win,” said the relieved American afterwards.

“I got a mega race and then just tried to focus on this race and to win it and get as many points as we could. That’s what we did. The car was really strong, and the pace was very good throughout the day.”

Jin Nakamura – fastest man around the Highlands track today – sat on pole position with Ugochukwu alongside on the front row. Kiwis filled the next three places with Louis Sharp in third and Zack Scoular fourth.

Ryan Wood, who faces a GP starting grid penalty and will start from the rear of the field, retained his fifth fastest time from the first qualifying session this morning to line up on the third row of the grid. Freddie Slater – Ugochukwu’s principal title rival – would start sixth.

With plenty at stake in the championship battle, Ugo made no mistakes and led as the field raced through the Bus Stop chicane and onto the rest of the first lap. Slater had made up one spot to fifth, and as they completed lap one, it was Ugochukwu, Nakamura – under attack from both Sharp and Scoular – then Slater, Wood, James Wharton, Liam Sceats, Ernesto Rivera and Nolan Allaer.

The push-to-pass option came to life on the second lap, and it looked like Wood was first to deploy it to try and win his place back from Slater. He attacked the Brit throughout the second lap, but Freddie held station despite putting two wheels off in the dirt.

Not only that, but he also had enough pace to catch up to the lead group, starting to queue up behind Hitech’s Nakamura. Jin’s lack of race pace at the start also meant Ugochukwu jumped out to an early lead of a second by the start of lap three.

Nakamura started to get up to speed a lap or two later as his tyre pressures rose, and immediately began to eat into the leader’s one-second margin. He gained a couple of tenths very quickly, but Ugochukwu was in no mood for a fight and moved back to a lead of one and a half seconds by lap seven – the leaders clearly playing cat and mouse with the help of their push-to-pass boosters.

Lap seven also saw Scoular, who had been holding fourth, have a quick spin, and that meant any hope he had of a podium finish evaporated as he sank down the order to 18th. That opened things up a little in the battle for the podium places, however, and was also good news for Slater, as he moved to fourth and one position closer to Ugochukwu.

Wood and Slater were still battling hard at the halfway mark – nine laps – and that continued until lap 12 when Slater suddenly found pace and carved out a one-second lead on Wood. It still left him a second away from Sharp, however.  

Nakamura was quick enough to defend second but had no answer for Ugochukwu’s front-running pace, and in the closing stages of the race started to slip closer to Sharp and Slater. Once he saw them looming large in his mirrors, however, he responded and, with two laps to go, had a safe enough margin over those behind.  

Rivera – having one of his better races of the Trophy championship – went off in a big way after the bridge on the final lap, and that brought out the Safety Car. That was that for the first race with Ugochukwu taking the win from Nakamura, Sharp, Slater, Wood, Wharton, Sceats, David, Kanato Le and Nolan Allaer.

A five-second penalty for David for exceeding track limits at Turn 10 three times would push him out of the top ten and bring Sebastian Manson in. Le would inherit pole position for Sunday’s reverse top eight grid Race 2 with Sceats alongside.

2026 Castrol Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Trophy – Race 1

Header Image: John Cowpland