Ugochukwu mistake allows Slater into title chase

A late mistake by championship leader Ugo Ugochukwu at Teretonga gave teammate Freddie Slater the Spirit of a Nation feature race trophy in the third round of the Castrol Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Trophy.

It propelled the British racer right into the title fight, with four races at Highlands remaining next week, including the missed race from Teretonga and the New Zealand Grand Prix. Louis Sharp had a strong run to second, with Jin Nakamura third for Hitech. Ugochukwu’s late off left him to struggle home in 14^th place.

“Honestly, we didn’t have the pace in the dry, and when the rain came, I knew it was reset time,” said Slater afterwards.  

“I had a mega final restart and was happy to put him under pressure and be on his tail into turn one. It was a good race and a good way to finish the weekend, but we have some work to do to win this thing, so it’s full send from here.”

With Slater on pole and series leader Ugochukwu on the front row alongside him, the Spirit of a Nation Trophy feature had the two fastest drivers of the Teretonga weekend out front.

Plenty of late work on the grid for Hitech’s Kanato Le meant trouble, and he failed to take the start when the cars left on the formation lap. Having qualified third, this added more woe to an already frustrating day for Le, who had been second in the points at the end of Saturday. He was out before the race began.

As the lights went out, the drivers did their first dry-weather start of the weekend. And ironically, as the cars pulled up to the start, the sky darkened, and the rain came yet again – albeit very lightly – with all of the field starting on slicks. Push to pass – hitherto out of play due to the races being declared wet – was available and the drivers would have eight to play with over the course of 30 laps.

Ugochukwu had been very aggressive on the formation lap, warming his tyres, and it was the championship leader who got the initial grip. He and Slater fought it out around the first turn, but it was Freddie who took the lead as there was a fair bit of chaos behind.

Ryan Wood had the full opposite lock engaged on the exit of turn on,e but survived in his MTEC Motorsport car. Kiwi Motorsport’s Cooper Shipman understeered off and bounced through the gravel trap on the outside but found his way back onto the circuit.

Another mtec Motorsport driver, Zack Scoular, went off on the inside but was also able to carry on. But M2 Competition’s Red Bull Junior Ernesto Rivera wasn’t as fortunate and beached his car at turn two. And that brought out the first Safety Car. Six laps of the short 2.57km were required to clear Rivera’s car out of the way and the field got underway again on lap 7.

Slater controlled the restart well and led Ugochukwu by three car lengths as they crossed the line, still trying to warm his tyres. The field was nicely spread, and without further incident, they completed the first flying lap of the race with Slater ahead of Ugochukwu, Luis Sharp, Jin Nakamura, Yuanpu Cui, Yevan David, Kalle Rovanperä, Fionn McLaughlin, Scoular, Wood, and the rest.

Scoular was first of the weekend to use push to pass on lap eight and was able to go around the outside of Rovanperä for seventh.

Ugochukwu was flying in second and broke the lap record for the category on the tenth lap, a measure of a clean track, cool air and a large amount of talent. It narrowed the gap to the leader to just half a second.

Further back, Wood had a go at Rovanperä around the outside but ended up losing a place to McLaughlin in the process – dropping the Kiwi to tenth.

Lap 13 and Ugochukwu was on the tail of Slater, who had dropped a wheel off the track at turn five in his desperate attempts to stay ahead of teammate Ugochukwu. The two remained locked in combat, and as they started lap 16, Ugochukwu deployed a push-to-pass and took the lead.

Slater would have his push to pass back for the straight next time around, but went off the road again as the rain started to fall at the far end of the circuit near the final corner. That meant he simply lost too much to mount an attack on the leader as they crossed the line to start lap 17.  

Ugochukwu was gone, revelling in the increasingly slippery conditions. The rapidly changing surface caught Sebastian Manson, who had a big off on the exit of turn two, making heavy contact with the unforgiving Teretonga tyre wall.

Thankfully, he stepped out shaken but unharmed. The Safety Car came out, adding further to the drama, as teams could switch to wet tyres. With it wet, they also lost push-to-pass. The rain, though, had other ideas, and the downpour brought out the red flag and suspension of the race.

That allowed all the teams to put wets on. After a lengthy delay, the race finally resumed with six to go, and it was a clean restart for all, but it all went wrong for Ugochukwu, who went off at turn one but managed to get back on track. It was his first significant mistake of the championship so far and would cost him a decent portion of his points lead.

That was all Slater needed, and he found himself two seconds ahead of Sharp, with Nakamura in third, Cui fourth, David fifth, Scoular sixth, but with a five-second penalty hanging over his head, McLaughlin, Rovanperä, Wood and Taylor.

Slater would move to second in the championship, with Ugochukwu’s lead cut to just 22 points.

2026 Castrol Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Trophy – Round 3 – Teretonga – Spirit of a Nation Trophy feature race

Header Image: Joel Hanks