Wurz puts himself on pole for FRegional Oceania title decider

Photo: TGR NZ

M2 Competition’s Charlie Wurz has put himself on pole for the Formula Regional Oceania title decider later today at Taupo.

Wurz was first out of the pits in the second qualifying session of the weekend, and laid down the first benchmark of 1m29.451s.

He was only briefly ahead as Kaleb Ngatoa lapped in the 1m27s, then Foster – the last driver to set a lap – got into the 1m26s.

Laurens van Hoepen brough the pace down further to 1m25.027s, putting him 0.055 seconds up on Foster and with Wurz in third.

There was then drama for James Penrose, who ran off track and had to travel through the run-off for a long time before being able to rejoin the circuit.

Wurz reclaimed top spot with his fourth lap, a 1m24.666s, only for main title rival Callum Hedge to better him by 0.055s and then for Foster to outdo them both with a 1m24.430s lap.

Most of the drivers then went on a cool-down lap next time by, making sure the tyres would be able to last the rest of the run.

It proved effective, as Wurz and van Hoepen improved their best laptime on their first lap back at pace and surpassed Foster. The previous pacesetter did also go faster, but it could put him no higher than third.

Wurz improved again next time by, and his 1m24.054s lap ultimately secured him pole as he then did another cool-down lap and did not go faster on his final effort.

Liam Sceats’ penultimate lap lifted him to second, just 0.023s off Wurz, and a lack of improvements from others meant van Hoepen qualified third, Foster fourth and Hedge down in fifth.

Qualifying results