Slater wins and Rovanperä stars in Teretonga rain

A fine drive in a rain and Safety car interrupted race saw Britain’s Freddie Slater race away to an impressive first win in the 2026 Castrol Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Trophy.

The first race at Teretonga Park – the third venue on the 2026 New Zealand calendar – also saw two-time World Rally Champion Kalle Rovanperä excel to take his first podium in single seater racing after a stellar drive. His team mate Jin Nakamura was second, just a car length or so ahead of the Finn.

Championship leader Ugo Ugochukwu finished eighth to retain his championship lead, but with a reduced margin.

The race was all about Slater and the dominance of the M2 Competition driver in treacherous conditions. In the highly competitive championship, he was the sixth driver to win a race so far this season.

“That was probably as much fun as I have had so far,” Freddie said afterwards. “It’s always challenging in the wet and you are flirting with the limits all the time but it was good fun out there finding the rhythm.

Soaking conditions at Teretonga Park in Invercargill had made qualifying something of a lottery at the third round of the Castrol Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Trophy today and that, combined with several grid penalties left Red Bull Junior Ernesto Rivera on pole position for the day’s first race.

Alongside Ernesto – the youngest driver in this year’s Trophy - was M2 Competition team mate Freddie Slater and in third after clocking sixth fastest time was none other than two-time World Rally Champion Kalle Rovanperä for Hitech – the Finn revelling in the awful conditions.

Jin Nakamura, who had posted the fastest qualifying time, lined up alongside his team mate on the second row after he was penalised three grid spots for bringing out a red flag in qualifying. Championship leader Ugo Ugochukwu was down in 12^th with plenty of work ahead if he wanted another decent points haul.

As the lights went out Slater made the best start followed by Rovanperä and Nakamura – who both made a great start from row two – but it was all over for pole position sitter Rivera as he spun off at the first turn after contact with Slater, bringing out the Safety Car.

Further back, mtec Motorsport’s Louis Sharp and Zack Scoular – at the back after failing to get a lap in during qualifying – made great starts and were up to 13^th and 15^th within the first two corners

With five laps under the Safety Car completed Slater made a clean getaway at the restart and quickly took a couple of car lengths from Nakamura and Rovanperä. Kalle was flying in the wet conditions, and was pretty quickly pressuring his Hitech team mate for second.

Just behind the leaders Kanato Le was holding fourth from an impressive Cooper Shipman, who had Jack Taylor and Ryan Wood in his mirrors. Wet weather specialist Taylor made a fantastic move around the outside of Shipman on lap nine to take fifth.

At the front Slater was making the most of clean air and clear vision and had raced away to a lead of almost six seconds by the halfway mark of the 25 lap race – lapping around one second per lap quicker than his rivals around the 2.57km circuit, and without the benefit of the push to pass system – disabled when a CTFROT race is declared wet.

Yevan David was enjoying conditions in the race too and was on a charge from near the back of the grid, fighting his way through with some great passes to 11^th by lap 14.

Lap 15 brought out the second Safety Car of the race when Zack Scoular’s progress through the field was halted with a spin into the tyre wall on the exit if turn one, and he was followed by David a few seconds later a few corners further on. That brought two great recovery drives to an end. Trevor LaTourette spun on the same lap as well, but was able to resume.

It was lap 20 before the GR Supra lights went out and the field were able to resume, with the track still wet in the light rain.  Slater repeated his perfectly judged restart and led away once again, taking a clear lead within a couple of corners. Further back in the battle pack, Louis Sharp was forced into the pits with a broken front wing following contact with Ricardo Baptista – who also had to pit for repairs.

Slater was long gone within two laps but it was getting very interesting behind with the three Hitech drivers – Nakamura, Rovanperä and Kanato Le, all running nose-to-tail ahead of Taylor, Shipman, Wood, a recovering Ugochukwu, Fionn Mclaughlin and in tenth, Sebastian Manson.

With just over a lap to go, Nolan Allaer put his car in the gravel and brought out the third, and final Safety Car and that meant a delighted Slater could cruise home to his first win the Hitech trio coming home in formation for second, third and fourth.  

2026 Castrol Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Trophy – Round 3 – Teretonga Race 1