Wood takes debut single seater win in impressive style at Taupo

A great start and unrelenting pace in Race 1 gave Supercars ace Ryan Wood the first single seater victory of his career at the second round of the 2026 Castrol Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Trophy at Taupo today.

Wood took the lead early and never looked back, racing away to beat series leader Ugo Ugochukwu by two seconds after a dominant performance. Ugo, however, could be quietly satisfied with his race, increasing his series lead to an impressive 35 points.

“Big credit to our whole team,” said Wood afterwards. “Sunday last week was rough but they built the car back up and ever since it’s been a jet.

“It feels nice, I’ve still got a bit of work to do but I think we are there or thereabouts. I’m more than happy. It was vital to take the lead early and run the race I wanted. There’s a few things we need to tune up but I’m looking forward to Race 2.”

Wood’s mtec Motorsport car led them out of the first corner with Ugochukwu slotting into second for M2 Competition.  Out of that first corner though and Ugo was under immediate attack from Zack Scoular. It was these three that made a very early break away and by the ultra-fast Turn 9 had a few car lengths on the rest of the field, led by Freddie Slater, Louis Sharp, Jin Nakamura, James Wharton and the rest.

Out front Wood, who knows the potential tyre degradation from the Taupo circuit better than most, settled into a rhythm quickly, not trying to pull away but rather focusing on not making mistakes.  It was enough to keep Ugochukwu contained a car length or two behind in the early stages, and he had one eye on Scoular behind anyway.

By lap four Slater had closed up to within a few tenths of Scoular, making it a four-way battle for the lead. Behind him Sharp was also on the move, clocking fastest sectors as he also hauled in the leaders after their early break.

Ugochukwu was using all of the road and more to defend from Scoular as the race approached the halfway mark of its 18 laps and that was of huge benefit to the leader, who by lap nine had moved away to a 1.6 second lead.

Scoular had made a big effort to pass through the final chicane on lap eight, locking up in the process but Ugochukwu stayed calm and held his line – and his position. Slater took no time at all to pounce on the compromised Scoular and pass him for third as they entered the second half of the race. It was a textbook move and perfect deployment of the Trophy cars’ new ‘push to pass’ system. Wood was the main beneficiary, however, and completed lap nine with an increased lead of more than two seconds.

Behind the battle for second, third and fourth there was plenty more to keep the fans interested in the midfield as a great midfield scrap starting at Kanato Le in ninth went all the way back to seventeenth placed Fionn McLaughlin.

Scoular had picked up a bad flat spot on his front left Pirelli and locked up a couple of times more on successive laps, allowing Sharp to get closer and ending any hopes he had of attacking Slater ahead for that final place on the podium. Slater was moving along nicely, pushing Ugochukwu enough that the American copped a track limits warning on lap 13.

Every lap Scoular’s plight got worse and every lap his lock-ups got more frequent and more smokey. And after a couple of desperate defensive laps, he finally had to relinquish fourth to Sharp on the penultimate lap.

Nobody had an answer for Wood out front though, the Kiwi nailing the race’s fastest lap early on then putting in a series of laps in the final five tours that left his pursuers breathless. He scored his first Supercars podium on the same track in 2025 and sailed away to his first CTFROT win in impressive style – a remarkable feet in only his fifth ever single seater race.

Ugochukwu came home a comfortable second in the end, ahead of Slater, Sharp, the struggling Scoular in fifth, James Wharton a solid sixth after a lonely race, with Ernesto Rivera the first Red Bull Junior home in seventh after a nice drive from eleventh on the grid. Then it was the Hitech duo of Kanato Le and a fading Jin Nakamura in eighth and ninth with Chinese racer Yuanpu Cui just holding off Yevan David for tenth.

Race 2 of the Taupo weekend goes later today, with the top eight finishers from Race 1 reversing for the grid line-up. That will put Le in pole position and Rivera alongside.

All the weekend’s action will be livestreamed on TGRNZ’s YouTube channel, and all races will be live on Sky Sport NZ. Tickets to come along to the race weekend are still available at https://nextgennz.flicket.co.nz

2026 Castrol Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Trophy – R2 Taupo Race 1