No obvious favourite as testing concludes at FR Oceania Round 2

| Photographer Credit: Bruce Jenkins

With Zack Scoular, Supercars champion Will Brown and Red Bull’s fast Brit Arvid Lindblad all topping a test session each in today’s final hit out before round two of the Castrol Toyota FR Oceania 2025 Championship at Hampton Downs – there’s no obvious favourite.

The first session of the morning brought much cooler – and much quicker – conditions for the drivers than Thursday and the lap times reflected that. The faster ones all ventured out for new tyre runs later on while an equal number opted to stay on older rubber and work on set up.

Scoular has impressed at Hampton Downs. Pic Bruce Jenkins

Taupo race winner Scoular gave further proof of his arrival under the international single seater spotlight with the fastest time of the session – an excellent 1 minute 28.736 seconds.  Nikita Johnson and Arvid Lindblad were only thousandths behind, however, with the top half of the 17 car field covered by just seven tenths of a second.

Josh Pierson – a pace setter in Thursday testing – was there again in fourth with Patrick Heuzenroeder in fifth and Brown amongst the pacesetters again in sixth in his Giles Motorsport car.

The morning session top ten was completed by Michael Shin for Korea, Peruvian Matias Zagazeta, Brazilian Nicholas Monteiro and US racer Shawn Rashid, doing exceptionally well in a challenging championship for a driver who didn’t start racing until his mid-twenties.

Brown (main photo) had been hard at work after the first session looking at ways to improve his car and it paid off in the second session when the Giles Motorsport driver went top of the timesheets with a 1 minute 29.155 second lap in what were slower conditions.

Most of the drivers completed longer runs during the half hour session – Brown racking up over 15 laps with several drivers topping that.

Patrick Heuzenroeder had a solid day in the North Waikato. Pic Bruce Jenkins

Heuzenroeder was on the pace once again to record the second fastest time of the session – a step up relative to the other runners for him – while Scoular was there yet again in third. Heuzenroeder’s time made it an Australian 1-2 for the session.

Josh Pierson was fourth and after a quiet start to the championship, American Jett Bowling – a second timer in New Zealand’s premier single seater championship – clocked the fifth fastest time just four tenths off Brown.

Behind those five, Lindblad, Johnson, Alex Crosbie, Rashid and Nicolas Stati completed the top ten.  It was another exceptionally close session – pointing towards the real action at the weekend being equally close.  Just over a second covered the top 13 drivers.

Brown was strong in the final session of the day too. Lindblad put in a late lap for the top spot while Brown was only a couple of tenths behind in second. Heuzenroeder was there yet again in third place, with Pierson also proving he has consistent pace at the North Waikato track with fourth.

Zack Scoular led the way in the first session. Pic Bruce Jenkins

Kiwi Alex Crosbie had another strong session for Giles Motorsport, cementing improvements made to pace on Thursday and certainly putting him in the picture for a decent result over the weekend. Johnson, Manson, Shin and Monteiro rounded out the final places in the top ten.

Scoular did the most laps of the session at 18, and was clearly running longer race distances rather than going for lap times. He finished 14th for the session.

Attention now turns fully to the action-end of the second round, with qualifying on Saturday morning and the first race on Saturday afternoon.

2025 Castrol Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Championship – R2 Practice 1 (Pos, #, Driver, Team, Country)

13Zack ScoularMTEC MotorsportNZL
217Nikita JohnsonM2 CompetitionUSA
34Arvid LindbladM2 CompetitionGBR
414Josh PiersonMTEC MotorsportUSA
55Patrick HeuzenroederMTEC MotorsportAUS
687Will BrownGiles MotorsportAUS
723Michael ShinM2 CompetitionKOR
88Matias ZagazetaM2 CompetitionPER
99Nicholas MonteiroMTEC MotorsportBRA
1032Shawn RashidMTEC MotorsportUSA
1169Sebastian MansonM2 CompetitionNZL
1241Alex CrosbieGiles MotorsportNZL
1377Enzo YehM2 CompetitionTPE
1422Jett BowlingKiwi MotorsportUSA
1515Nicolas StatiKiwi MotorsportAUS
1613Barrett WolfeGiles MotorsportUSA
1788James LawleyKiwi MotorsportCAN

2025 Castrol Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Championship – R2 Practice 2 (Pos, #, Driver, Team, Country)

187Will BrownGiles MotorsportAUS
25Patrick HeuzenroederMTEC MotorsportAUS
33Zack ScoularMTEC MotorsportNZL
414Josh PiersonMTEC MotorsportUSA
522Jett BowlingKiwi MotorsportUSA
617Nikita JohnsonM2 CompetitionUSA
74Arvid LindbladM2 CompetitionGBR
841Alex CrosbieGiles MotorsportNZL
932Shawn RashidMTEC MotorsportUSA
1015Nicolas StatiKiwi MotorsportAUS
118Matias ZagazetaM2 CompetitionPER
129Nicholas MonteiroMTEC MotorsportBRA
1377Enzo YehM2 CompetitionTPE
1469Sebastian MansonM2 CompetitionNZL
1523Michael ShinM2 CompetitionKOR
1613Barrett WolfeGiles MotorsportUSA
1788James LawleyKiwi MotorsportCAN

2025 Castrol Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Championship – R2 Practice 3 (Pos, #, Driver, Team, Country)

14Arvid LindbladM2 CompetitionGB
287Will BrownGiles MotorsportAUS
35Patrick HeuzenroederMTEC MotorsportAUS
414Josh PiersonMTEC MotorsportUSA
541Alex CrosbieGiles MotorsportNZ
617Nikita JohnsonM2 CompetitionUSA
769Sebastian MansonM2 CompetitionNZ
823Michael ShinM2 CompetitionKR
99Nicholas MonteiroMTEC MotorsportBR
1077Enzo YehM2 CompetitionTPE
113Zack ScoularMTEC MotorsportNZ
1232Shawn RashidMTEC MotorsportUSA
1315Nicolas StatiKiwi MotorsportAUS
148Matias ZagazetaM2 CompetitionPE
1522Jett BowlingKiwi MotorsportUSA
1688James LawleyKiwi MotorsportCA
1713Barrett WolfeGiles MotorsportUSA

2025 Castrol Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Championship – Points after Round 1 (Pos, #, Driver, Team, Points)

PosNo.DriverTeamPoints
14Arvid LindbladM2 Competition78
28Matias ZagazetaM2 Competition73
33Zack Scoularmtec Motorsport68
417Nikita JohnsonM2 Competition58
587Will BrownGiles Motorsport54
614Josh Piersonmtec Motorsport54
723Michael ShinM2 Competition48
85Patrick Heuzenroedermtec Motorsport46
977Enzo YehM2 Competition37
1069Sebastian MansonM2 Competition33
1113Shawn Rashidmtec Motorsport23
129Nicholas Monteiromtec Motorsport22
1341Alex CrosbieGiles Motorsport21
1422Jett BowlingKiwi Motorsport20
1515Nicolas StatiKiwi Motorsport15
1632Barrett WolfeGiles Motorsport13
1788James LawleyKiwi Motorsport8

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