The 2025/26 NZ Sports Car Racing season has drawn to a close, with Tim Edgell and Anton Aalders crowned winners of the Open class and 2 litre Class respectively, after six rounds of hard, close racing across Manfeild, Taupō and Hampton Downs.
It was a season that delivered on every count that matters — full grids, fair racing, and real momentum heading into 2026/27. But the standout story of the year wasn’t a single result. It was the way the class came together.
Bringing Formula Racing NZ (FRNZ) onto the grid alongside the established Sportscars NZ field was a decision that asked something of everyone — competitors, officials and organisers all had to back a format that hadn’t been tried at this scale in years.
The joint-grid format isn’t new to New Zealand motorsport. Sportscars and single-seaters have shared programmes here for decades under the Formula Libre banner — a “free formula” approach that goes all the way back to the New Zealand Grand Prix era of the 1950s and 60s, and one that’s lived on in various forms at club and historic level ever since.
What’s different about this season is the scale: bringing a modern, current-spec joint format back to a competitive national-championship grid, with proper trophies, full fields and real depth.
By the end of the year, the answer was a clear one: the joint-class approach worked, and it worked well. Grids were fuller, race programmes were tighter and more enjoyable to watch. Drivers from both classes got the benefit of bigger events, more sponsor attention, and the kind of paddock buzz you only get when you’ve got a deep, ambitious field running together.
The NZ Sports Car Racing 2 litre Class title fight itself went down to wire at the final meeting (Hampton Downs Season Finale) of the season between Anton Aalders, driving a car built by himself and Nick Rae, driving a Ligier JS49. These two drivers were never far apart all season.
Tim Edgell was the clear winner of the Open Class, driving a Radical SR10, followed by Tony Hembrow, driving a Radical SR10 and SR8.
The NZ Sports Car Racing classes
The NZ Sports Cars Series is a grassroots, MotorSport NZ-accredited series built around variety. Three classes carry points across the season — each with its own perpetual trophy — and the rules are deliberately broad to encourage close racing across a wide range of machinery.
2-Litre Class — naturally aspirated 2-litre piston-engined sports racing cars. Racing for the NZIGP Ken Wharton Trophy. This season’s winner is Anton Aalders.
Open Class — sports racing cars to Open Class regulations, with forced induction permitted. Often the fastest cars at the meeting. Racing for the Aislabie-Barker Trophy. This season’s winner is Tim Edgell
Historic Class — sports racing cars at least 25 years old, presented in the configuration they were raced in period. Racing for the Historic Trophy.
Three classes, three different ways into the sport — and winners who all did the hard work over a full season, against quality fields, on three circuits that don’t give anything up easily.
Formula Racing NZ (FRNZ) — the joint class
Alongside the Sportscars NZ field, FRNZ ran for its own points and its own trophies in its first season on the combined grid. The class is built around three categories of single-seater, all running in the standard specification they raced in period.
In the Formula Atlantics, the historic 1600cc open-wheelers that were New Zealand’s national single-seater formula from the mid-1970s through to the early 1990s, Brian Hartley took the Kenny Smith Trophy — named after one of the most experienced and respected drivers in New Zealand motorsport history, and a fitting result given the Hartley family’s long-standing contribution to the sport.
In the Toyota FT40 — the entry-level Toyota Racing Series chassis that launched the modern era of New Zealand single-seater racing — Campbell Owens took the Brendon Hartley Trophy, named after the 24 Hrs of Le Mans winner, FIA World Endurance Champion and Formula 1 driver whose own career was launched in the FT40 class.
In the Toyota FT50, the more powerful evolution of the TRS package and the car that produced a generation of Kiwi talent before the current FT60 took over, Toby McCormack took the Shane van Gisbergen Trophy — named after the three-time Supercars Champion, NASCAR Cup race winner and New Zealand Grand Prix winner.
And sitting above all three, the Scott Dixon Trophy for the overall Formula Racing NZ Champion — named after the six-time IndyCar Series champion and Indianapolis 500 winner — also went to Toby McCormack, with Campbell Owens second and Leo Francis third.
The Brendon Hartley Trophy was presented by Brian Hartley himself — a moment we’ll let our dedicated FRNZ wrap tell properly.
Owens and McCormack will both head for a test in Toyota Racing’s current-spec FT60 thanks to category partner TOYOTA GAZOO Racing New Zealand — a real prize at the end of a real championship, and another sign of where the joint format is heading.
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