Three winners from three races make it wide open at Hampton Downs

| Photographer Credit: Ross Hyde

Three races and three different winners points to a very competitive 2025 Castrol Toyota FR Oceania Championship as the drivers head to the second round at Hampton Downs this weekend.

A big crowd at Taupo for promoter NextGen’s Historic GP meeting saw Kiwi Zack Scoular, Matias Zagazeta and Arvid Lindblad take the race wins, with Lindblad taking the Denny Hulme Memorial Trophy in style to end the weekend at the top of the first points table.

Hampton Downs will see the drivers competing for the Dorothy Smith Memorial Trophy and the top three drivers and a few more besides are sure to be in contention around the longer – 3.8km – international layout at the North Waikato circuit.

Arvid Lindblad ended the Taupo weekend with victory. Picture Bruce Jenkins

Lindblad should be the pick of the crop having improved all weekend to get himself and his M2 Competition car at the front of the pack. He’ll also now know just how competitive the NZ-based championship is and why so many of its graduates have competed or taken part in F1. Taupo was no pushover for the Red Bull junior and Hampton Downs will be no different.

Peruvian M2 team mate Matias Zagazeta and mtec Motorsport’s Scoular look to be the closest of challengers but Supercars champion Will Brown showed plenty of pace at Taupo, as did rising US stars Josh Pierson and Nikita Johnson. Any of those three could win at Hampton Downs this weekend and – at worst – should be in the mix for podiums too.

Brown particularly will be looking to make the most of the second of his three opportunities in this year’s championship. Now with a little more time in the car, he could be the man to beat at Hampton.

Korean Michael Shin also showed plenty of pace – and nerves of steel in his feature race spin – at Taupo and will be up to speed quickly at a track he has experience of from last season’s championship. Patrick Heuzenroeder is also likely to make a big step up and showed he has plenty of pace to tap into with some strong moments for mtec at Taupo – most notably a scintillating drive through the field on Saturday after six great overtakes.

Kiwi’s Sebastian Manson and Alex Crosbie can be expected to pick up the pace at a track they know well after their first race weekends of 2025 left them in tenth and 13th in the points table respectively. Chinese F4 champion Enzo Yeh had a strong weekend at Taupo too, unlucky to leave no higher than ninth in the points for M2 Competition. Expect a step up from him at Hampton Downs too. Brazil’s Nicholas Monteiro, American’s Shawn Rashid and Jett Bowling will also be looking to up their games at Hampton Downs after improving race pace in each of the three races over the Taupo weekend.

Unofficial testing begins on Thursday with official testing Friday, qualifying for Race 1 and Race 1 on Saturday, Feature race qualifying and Race 2 on Sunday morning, then the Dorothy Smith Memorial Trophy race on Sunday afternoon.

2025 Castrol Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Championship – Points after Round 1

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

Related Stories

Lindblad again – but only just

TalkMotorsport Medium Read Length MEDIUM READ

Join in the conversation!


Comments

Leave a Reply