Feeney and Brown thrive at Highlands for NZ GP front row

The high pressure qualifying environment of Supercars qualifying brought out the best of Broc Feeney and Will Brown at Highlands this morning, with Feeney taking a surprise pole position ahead of his Triple Eight team mate Brown for the 69^th New Zealand Grand Prix.

With Australians 1-2-3 on the grid, and Kiwi Zack Scoular fourth, the Grand Prix on Sunday will provide an enthralling finale to the 2025 Castrol Toyota FR Oceania Championship. Championship leader Arvid Lindblad could only qualify fifth for M2 Competition, with the team not matching the overall pace of both mtec Motorsport and Giles Motorsport.

Qualifying was divided into three segments, with the first defining the Race 1 grid and also the 13 drivers who would move forward to the next phase of NZGP qualifying. The third session took the top eight with the order after 12 frantic minutes the first four rows for the Grand Prix.

“These are high pressure situations and we’re well used to them,” said Brown after putting his car on the front row. But neither he, nor fellow Aussie Patrick Heuzenroeder, could do anything about Feeney, who delivered a fast lap early and then a hammer blow 1 minute 29.032 for GP pole position.

“My heart rate was about 300 beats. It was awesome. I knew I had to get through to Q3 and qualifying is so important here that to put it on pole position for the Grand Prix is bloody awesome.

“We’ve been going out thirty seconds after everyone but in the final session we went straight to the front and got the lap done. I could just focus on myself and my lap without worrying about anyone else.”

Heuzenroeder made it a 1-3 for mtec Motorsport with a classy performance throughout the qualifying sessions. The young Australian ace consistently got the most out of his car and tyres throughout each of the three high pressure qualifying sessions and it paid off with his best qualifying of the championship so far.

His performance was all the more remarkable as a puncture in the first session left him on a mis-matched set of three new and one used tyres for the remainder of qualifying. He topped the first qualifying session – which gave him pole position for the first race on Saturday afternoon – and was a factor throughout the remaining two sessions. He ultimately took third fastest time and will lead the second row for the Grand Prix and beat championship leader Arvid Lindblad fair and square as best of the championship regulars..

Scoular was another to be strong throughout on mtec’s highly effective qualifying set-up and strategy. Consistently in the top group, the Rookie champion left his best to last and leap frogged Lindblad with his final effort.

M2 Competition would have hoped for more, and had only Lindblad and Johnson in final qualifying. Matias Zagazeta failed to make it through the second phase.

In their best qualifying performance so far – Shawn Rashid for mtec and Jett Bowling for Kiwi Motorsport both did exceptionally well. Rashid was a star, the American putting in a purple sector late in the final qualifying session before sliding wide late in the lap and mitigating any further improvement.

At the close it was Feeney, Brown, Heuzenroeder, Scoular, Lindblad, Rashid, Johnson and Bowling in that order for the top eight. Rounding out the top ten on the grid will be Nicholas Monteiro – a personal best for him – and M2s next best Michael Shin.

2025 Castrol Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Championship – Race 1 Qualifying

2025 Castrol Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Championship – Grand Prix Qualifying