Rivera soaks up the rain for pole position in Teretonga

Soaking conditions at Teretonga Park in Invercargill made qualifying something of a lottery at the third round of the Castrol Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Trophy today and it was Red Bull Junior Ernesto Rivera who emerged from a challenging qualifying session to claim pole position for the day’s first race.

With limited wet weather running from the previous two days of testing and practice, drivers were cautious for the first couple of laps before Hitech’s Jin Nakamura – pace setter on Friday – put in a 1 minute 5 second lap to head the field. Rivera was next up, the Red Bull Junior confirming his improved form from testing around the 2.57km track.

Freddie Slater for M2 Competition and Fionn McLaughlin for Hitech were next up, followed by Giles Motorsport’s Nolan Allaer and Hitech’s Kalle Rovanperä. Allaer unfortunately then went off at turn one and brought out the red flag while his car was retrieved from the gravel. He kept his time, but would lose three places on the grid.

There was no let-up in the rain as the cars headed back out and unfortunately for Nakamura, he was next off the track as conditions worsened. That was enough for race officials and without enough time to retrieve Nakamura’s car and they called a halt to the session. Like Allaer before him, Jin would keep his fastest time, but copped a three place grid penalty in the process. And that gave pole position to Rivera.

Rivera’s M2 Competition team mate Freddie Slater was third fastest but will start alongside on the front row. Hitech’s Fionn McLaughlin was fourth fastest but has a six place grid penalty which includes causing a red flag in qualifying and a flag compliance infringement in practice, so will start tenth.

Two-time world rally champion Kalle Rovanperä, who naturally enough, was superb in the soaking conditions, is the main beneficiary of the penalties and will start an excellent third on the grid after recording the sixth fastest time. Nakamura starts alongside him on the second row.

In an excellent session for a team new to the championship, Hitech team mate Kanato Le will start fifth with Jack Tayler alongside. Allaer will start seventh, still an impressive performance for a US driver with very limited wet weather experience compared to his European rivals.

Cooper Shipman also made the most of the conditions to clock the ninth fastest time ahead of Ryan Wood. After penalties those two start eighth and ninth.

The confusion with red flags and terrible conditions meant it was a disastrous session for several of the drivers, including Yuanpu Cui, Louis Sharp and Zack Scoular, who only completed out laps and ended up sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth with plenty of work to do in the race.

2026 Castrol Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Trophy – Round 3 – Teretonga Qualifying

*Three place grid penalty for Car 12 and Car 52

** Six place grid penalty for Car 33