Ugochukwu wins FRegional Oceania race two at Highlands

Photo: TGR NZ / Bruce Jenkins

Ugo Ugochukwu won the second Formula Regional Oceania race at Highlands Motorsport Park to extend his points lead with two races of the season left to go.

The M2 Competition driver started second alongside Hitech GP’s Jin Nakamura, who had taken pole by topping the first segment of qualifying on Saturday morning.

He had outpaced Ugochukwu and MTEC Motorsport’s Louis Sharp by 0.014s, with Ugochukwu qualifying ahead having set his laptime first.

Sharp’s team-mates Zack Scoular and Ryan Wood were also within 0.1s of pole, and Ugochukwu’s main title rival and team-mate Freddie Slater qualified sixth.

Ugochukwu made a better start than Nakamura and led the field into the opening corner. He had a 1.267s gap by the end of lap one, and kept himself out of attacking range for Nakamura through the rest of the race.

Slater overtook Wood on the first lap, then had to defend from him into the main hairpin on lap two. Wood stayed in his tow for most of the lap, and HMD Motorsports with TJ Speed’s Trevor LaTourrette headed to the pits where he would remain for several laps as his team examined his car.

Scoular began pressuring Sharp on lap three, but rather than force an error from the third-placed driver he instead made his own mistake. After the bridge crossing on lap lap seven he spun off, and rejoined at the back of the field.

That all but secured Sharp the final podium position, as Slater was unable to close in on him after eventually gapping Wood.

HMD’s James Wharton and Liam Sceats occupied the next two places, and Kiwi Motorsport’s Yevan David lost eighth to Hitech’s Kanato Le after being handed a five-second penalty for track limits abuse. He had been chased by M2’s Ernesto Rivera, rather than Le, for most of the race but on the penultimate lap Rivera crashed out after crossing the bridge.

That late drama, and the penalty, meant Le earned reversed-grid pole for the next race.

Race results (16 laps)