Ryan Wood, Supercars winner and now single-seater ace, added his name to an illustrious list adorning the Denny Hulme Memorial Trophy, the big prize at the second weekend of the 2026 Castrol Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Trophy.
A fine – and faultless performance – saw Wood take the lead early, maintain it after a Safety car period, and manage his tyres and pace perfectly for a famous victory at Taupo International Motorsport Park.
“Honestly, this means the world,” he said afterwards.
“When I was little, I won the Denny Hulme certificate at kart nationals, so to win that trophy today 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. We’ll celebrate today, then focus on Teretonga and Highlands to come. 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 Sunday morning, Giles Motorsport’s young Aussie gun, Jack Taylor, made a clean getaway, but it was Ryan Wood alongside who made the best start of all and led into turn one.
Kanato Le was away well for Hitech and put Taylor into third on turn two as the field sorted itself out behind. At the end of the first of 23 laps in the feature race, it was Wood from Le, Louis Sharp, Taylor, Freddie Slater, Yevan David, James Wharton, Ugochukwu, after a great start from 11th on the grid, Yuanpu Cui and Jin Nakamura.
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.
Further back, Wharton lost time with an off that dropped him down to 17th, and that elevated Red Bull Junior Ernesto Rivera into the top ten.
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.
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, Ugo showing why he will remain a championship protagonist despite a challenging day at Taupo. And he didn’t look finished at that point either, as he immediately 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 down to 14th and one place behind Rovanperä, who was really finding some race form in his first full feature race in the Trophy, giving McLaughlin the hurry up throughout the middle laps.
Nakamura and David were battling hard ahead, each trying to use their push-to-pass to either defend or attack. David would have to keep one eye on the battle between Cui and Rivera behind, which was intense. By lap 12 – effectively halfway – Wood had extended his lead slightly to 1.5 seconds.
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 behind the wheel of the GR Supra Safety Car.
Action in the bunched-up field as the cars got the green light on lap was inevitable, and it wasn’t really good news for the leading trio as it brought Ugochukwu fully into play for the final phase of the race.
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. David and Taylor continued to warm their tyres after the Safety Car lights had gone – and that would later cost them both five-second penalties in the final results.
Taylor was quickly under threat from Ugochukwu, the young Aussie defending extraordinarily well as Ugo attacked again. The two went side by side, showing immense respect for each other, but the battle gave Nakamura the opportunity to attack, and the Hitech driver passed Ugochukwu for fifth on the eighteenth lap. Nakamura then had an enormous moment in the final corner a lap later, trying to pass Tayler, and that gave Ugochukwu the opportunity to repass, which he did, 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 hugely abrasive surface began to set in on the 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. Ugo finally made it through at the start of the penultimate lap, but the five seconds to the next man ahead was simply too much.
After an absorbing race, it was that man Wood – who surely must have caught the eye of many single-seater scouts from major teams in Europe – who raced home to add his name to one of New Zealand’s most significant motorsport trophies. In the process, he moved into the top five in the points ahead of round three at Invercargill next weekend.
Le was a strong second for Hitech, with Sharp third and Ugochukwu’s fighting drive rewarded with fourth, keeping the championship lead at the halfway point. Nakamura was fifth, and after Taylor and David’s penalties dropped them to 11th and 12th, it was Cui, Rivera, Allaer, a fighting Rovanperä who had his strongest race to date for ninth and Manson in tenth.
The iconic New Zealand series prize – which includes in its design the actual trophy given to the 1967 World Champion for his great victory in the 1974 Argentine Grand Prix in Buenos Aires when he won from tenth on the grid – was presented to Wood by Denny’s sister Anita.
Header Image: Joel Hanks
