Championship battle even tighter as Slater takes another win

Freddie Slater kept his hopes of winning every championship he has ever competed in well and truly alive after a fine win this afternoon at Highlands Motorsport Park – venue for the final round of the Castrol Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Trophy.

Slater led from pole position to the flag and in doing so narrowed the gap to his M2 Competition team mate and series leader Ugo Ugochukwu to just 18 points with three races – including the 70^th New Zealand Grand Prix remaining. It was his best drive of the championship and the most important of his three wins so far.

“Not a bad way to finish a Friday,” said Slater afterwards. “The pace was good, the car was completely different with the wind in that race than it was in earlier practice but we managed to come out on top.

“I will keep on trying to win as many races as possible over the weekend and see where we end up.”

The Trophy guarantees its drivers a high number of racing kilometres and when a race is lost due to bad weather – as it was at Teretonga Park last weekend - every effort is made to ensure the drivers get their races. And not for the first time in the championship’s history, that meant a Friday evening catch-up.

The 16 lap taster would be without Liam Sceats, competing in the Grand Prix but not eligible for the race as it was rescheduled from Teretonga. James Wharton would also be absent, having missed the Teretonga round.

Round 3 Race 3 as it was referred to in the paddock would also, sadly, be without two-time World Rally Champion Kalle Rovanperä due to the Finn picking up a nasty bug on Thursday night that forced him to withdraw. It was a particular shame as he would have started from the second row in fourth after his electrifying podium drive in the wet second race last weekend.

Zack Scoular was fortunate not to miss the race - very lucky to have such a good team of mechanics around him at mtec Motorsport – Bruin Beasley’s crew and several of TOYOTA GAZOO Racing New Zealand’s technical team doing an outstanding job to put his car back together after a sizeable crash in the day’s second practice session and get Scoular on the grid.

On the front row were Freddie Slater for M2 Competition and Hitech rival Kanato Le. On row two Ugochukwu – with a 23 point championship lead - had Louis Sharp for company following Rovanperä’s withdrawal. Ryan Wood lined up seventh, but had a fast race car based on his practice times during the day.

Slater got away well and Ugochukwu demoted Le for second through the first chicane. Le settled into third, with Sharp in fourth and Yevan David in fifth. Scoular clearly had eyes on a good result in his hastily-repaired car and passed David for fifth halfway round the first lap. That pass was quickly followed by a great Louis Sharp move to pass Le for third.

As early as lap two several cars had warnings from race control for exceeding track limits and that meant a little more caution for all, particularly at the infield chicane just before the bridge. At the front Ugochukwu remained fully committed and despite Slater clocking fastest lap fourth time around, Ugo held station only four tenths adrift. The race was quickly evolving into a critical battle between the two main championship contenders and M2 Competition team mates.

Slater picked up his first warning from the stewards on lap seven for his car exceeding the track limits right about the time Ugochukwu was mounting extreme pressure on the leader. Freddie was clearly under pressure.

With only six ‘push to pass’ boosts available in the race, the top two were obviously eyeing up the best option available to them through the middle of the race and that allowed Sharp to catch up, helped by the race’s fastest lap thus far on lap nine.

Slater showed all of his class at the front as the race entered its final few laps, building his lead to eight tenths of a second as Ugochukwu copped his first track limits warning on lap 12 trying to keep up. By lap 13 Freddie had built that significantly to 1.3 seconds with some very effective use of his push-to-pass. Behind them, Sharp couldn’t maintain the leaders’ pace – with or without the benefit of push-to-pass.

Having rested his tyres for a lap or so, Ugochukwu attacked again but had no answer for Slater’s pace and the Brit – signed to Audi’s F1 junior driver programme earlier in the week – raced away to take the chequered flag.

Ugo kept up his pace - and his advantage over Sharp - but had to settle for second and a reduced series lead – himself struggling to make gains on Slater in the windy conditions. Sharp took the final place on the podium.

Le fell back from Louis in the second half of the race, but had enough over Scoular who himself had a safe margin over a flying Wood.  Ryan – unfazed by two warnings for track limits – was piling on the pressure to Yevan David and it paid off on lap 11 as a mistake by the Sri Lankan let Wood, and Yuanpu Cui by.  

The move guaranteed Ryan sixth pace at the flag and with Rovanperä absent, it secured the Rookie Championship title for the Supercars driver.

Cui had a few car lengths over David for eighth at the flag, while Jack Taylor and Jin Nakamura rounded out the top ten. A recovery drive by Nakamura after a poor opening lap kept him fourth in the points.

Saturday morning begins with CTFROT’s unique Grand Prix Qualifying. Session 1 will define the Race 1 grid and will see the slowest six eliminated from the second session with those finishing positions their starting positions in the GP. Just like Formula 1 the second session will also see the next group of six drivers eliminated with those positions their GP grid slots before the final shoot-out to set the top eight on the grid.

2026 Castrol Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Trophy – Round 3 Race 3