Photo: TGR NZ
Ugo Ugochukwu kept the Formula Regional Oceania points lead in round two at Taupo as Ryan Wood won the Denny Hulme Memorial Trophy.
Wood and James Wharton had won the first two races two weekends ago, and drivers’ combined fastest laps from those two encounters set the grid for race three on Sunday.
That put MTEC Motorsport’s Zack Scoular on pole, ahead of Freddie Slater (M2 Competition), Wood (MTEC), Wharton (HMD Motorsports with TJ Speed), points leader Ugo Ugochukwu (M2), Fionn McLaughlin (Hitech GP) and Louis Sharp (MTEC).
Scoular initially moved to the outside then swept back to the inside on the run to the race’s opening corner, and while he was under attack then he had a gap by turn four as Wood fought with Slater. Further back, McLaughlin lost out in a battle with fellow Red Bull junior Ernesto Rivera that sent him down to 12th place.
There was a 2.42s gap between the top two by lap three, which Slater gradually reduced to 1.7s before Scoular pulled away again to be 8.4s clear by the finish. Wood kept with Slater but was never close enough to attack him after lap one, and Ugochukwu got into fourth before trouble at turn 11 on lap five cast him to 16th and he had to work his way back up to 11th.
Sharp inherited fourth, having overtaken Wharton on lap three, and kept the position for the rest of the 18-lap race.
The battle for sixth was full of drama. Kanato Le overtook Hitech team-mate Jin Nakamura down the back straight using push-to-pass on lap three, then got by Rivera on lap four after he had a big lock-up at the turn 11 hairpin. However Rivera got back past before the chicane, and they had contact at turn one on lap five. Le was sent off briefly on the outside, and he lost several places including falling behind McLaughlin at turn nine.
Kiwi Motorsport’s Yevan David was next to attack Rivera, but he had his own major lock-up into the chicane on lap six to avoid contact with him. That left him then defending against M2’s Sebastian Manson, until he got tipped into a spin by McLaughlin when they reached turn one.
McLaughlin passed Cui into the chicane on lap eight then joined David in the train of cars behind Rivera. David had another off at the chicane on lap 12, leaving McLaughlin, Le and Cui as Rivera’s chasers. Rivera was overtaken down the back straight on lap 14 by McLaughlin, and Le was nosing into the rear of his car on the next lap but Rivera stayed ahead after locking up into the chicane.
Next time by Le and Cui cleared him in one move, and the second group of cars had closed back in. David snuck down Rivera’s inside into turn one on lap 17, then gained another spot as Cui picked up damage that sent him into retirement.
After McLaughlin and Rivera were handed time penalties post-race, it led to Nolan Allaer (Giles Motorsport) and Cooper Shipman (Kiwi) completing the top 10.
There was a second qualifying session that set the grid for the Denny Hulme Memorial Trophy-awarding race four, and on a soaked track Giles’ Jack Taylor claimed a surprise pole position.
Red flags were triggered by Trevor LaTourrette (HMD) spinning off, and Sharp was fastest at that point. He led Wood by 0.048 seconds at the session’s halfway point, with Taylor 0.82s off in third. Wood went fastest by 0.201s with six-and-a-half minutes to go, and Wharton shuffled Taylor down to fourth.
Sharp and Wood swapped top spot twice with five minutes remaining, and Slater moved into third as Taylor dropped to 10th. Next to lead the way was David, and Sharp reclaimed provisional pole by 0.008s in the final two minutes. Track evolution meant laptimes continued to drop, and 20s later Taylor leapt from 11th to first with a 1m32.687s.
Ugochukwu bettered that by 0.16s, then Wood went quickest by 1.139s over Sharp with 20s left on the clock. Taylor and Ugochukwu were down to sixth and 10th respectively as David jumped to second when the chequered flag waved, but with a rapid final effort Taylor stole pole from Wood by 0.274s.
Le and Sharp completed a top five that all lapped sub-1m32s, with Ugochukwu, McLaughlin and Scoular outside of the top 10.
The track was dry at the end of the day, and Australian Supercars star Wood passed Taylor off the line then rarely had to look in his mirrors as he drove to victory.
Le got around the outside of Taylor into the opening corner but the poleman did not concede second place until turn three, and Sharp got past on the inside into the hairpin despite locking up.
Slater got into fifth past the battling David and Wharton, and once Wharton went off at the hairpin on lap three he had less to worry about until two of his own offs there meant he joined Wharton near the back of the pack.
Ugochukwu had already passed Slater for fifth before his first off, and Nakamura (who started 10th) went past David for sixth on lap 10 of 23. Their progress was halted on lap 13 as the safety car was summoned. Rivera and Scoular had clashed the chicane, sending Scoular a safe distance off track but leaving him stranded due to damage.
Racing resumed on lap 17, and Wood pulled away from Le and Sharp. Ugochukwu attacked Taylor on lap 18, nosing ahead exiting turn two before they went side-by-side again through to turn seven where Nakamura snatched fifth. However his own mistake when trying to pass Taylor at the end of lap 19 meant Ugochukwu got back past him, and the points leader finally cleared Taylor down the back straight on lap 21.
Nakamura had a second attempt a lap later without luck, but gained the position anyway as Taylor and David were penalised five seconds for weaving behind the safety car. It dropped Taylor to 11th, and meant World Rally champion Kalle Rovanpera (Hitech) claimed the best result of his single-seater career in ninth.
Wharton and Slater finished 16th and 17th, hurting their title ambitions as Ugochukwu concluded the event with a 33-point lead over Le.
Results round-up
Race 3 (18 laps)
1 Zack Scoular MTEC Motorsport 25m10.289s
2 Freddie Slater M2 Competition +8.454s
3 Ryan Wood MTEC Motorsport +9.602s
4 Louis Sharp MTEC Motorsport +12.654s
5 James Wharton HMD w/ TJ Speed +13.931s
6 Jin Nakamura Hitech GP +26.203s
7 Kanato Le Hitech GP +32.035s
8 Yevan David Kiwi Motorsport +35.642s
9 Nolan Allaer Giles Motorsport +36.695s
10 Cooper Shipman Kiwi Motorsport +37.487s
Fastest lap: Scoular, 1m23.261s
Denny Hulme Memorial Trophy (23 laps)
1 Wood 35m55.008s
2 Le +1.595s
3 Sharp +1.996s
4 Ugo Ugochukwu M2 Competition +7.908s
5 Nakamura +9.063s
6 Yuanpu Cui MTEC Motorsport +11.504s
7 Ernesto Rivera M2 Competition +11.636s
8 Allaer +13.337s
9 Kalle Rovanpera Hitech GP +13.641s
10 Sebastian Manson M2 Copmetition +14.069s
Pole: Jack Taylor, 1m31.340s
FL: Wood, 1m23.258s
Championship standings
1 Ugochukwu 194 2 Le 161 3 Sharp 159 4 Nakamura 153 5 Wood 150 6 Slater 144 7 Scoular 120 8 Rivera 118 9 Wharton 113 10 Allaer 86