Scoular schools CTFROC field at Taupo with perfect debut

Seventeen-year-old Zack Scoular may not be the best known Kiwi single seater racing driver currently, but he put his name firmly among New Zealand’s rising stars with a near-perfect performance at Taupo to win the first race of the 2025 Castrol Toyota FR Oceania Championship.

All the more remarkable was the fact it was the Dubai-based racer’s home debut after years of learning the racing ropes elsewhere in the world.

Starting from pole position for mtec Motorsport, he made the perfect start to have a couple of car length on fellow front row starter – and current Aussie Supercars champion – Will Brown at the first corner. Brown himself had his mirrors full of another Red Bull top gun – Arvid Lindblad.

Scoular settled in perfectly and never lost his composure – or pace – throughout the 17 lap race, adding the race win and fastest lap to his pole position to make it a perfect start.

“The car was really, really good and as soon I made a decent start it was head down and then qually lap, qually lap, qually lap,” he said.

“Tyre degradation can be really bad here at Taupo but it really wasn’t too much of a problem for me in that race and I was able to push hard. I knew Will would be fast but I also knew that if I could stay a reasonable distance ahead of him, held never get himself in a position to pass, so that was my focus. It’s fantastic to take the win here first time out, a really amazing feeling.”

Brown too drove well on his FR debut with Giles Motorsport and might have been a little closer but for a small lock up, but he was satisfied with his result and enjoyed being back in a single seater in a tightly matched field.

“I was never close enough to have a crack but it was very cool to be back in an open wheeler,” he said afterwards. “I tried to not lock up but I did it a few times so that’s something I’ve got to learn. Even so, we had a pretty competitive car and its cool to be on the podium.”

M2 Competition’s Lindblad had a relatively solitary race in third after a great start that saw him move into third and threaten for at least second spot with a bold move around the outside of the first turn.  He didn’t have the outright pace of the leaders, however and could be forgiven for focussing on Nikita Johnson behind and defence of his third place rather than trying to chase down Brown, who always had a few car lengths in hand.

Johnson brought his M2 Competition car home fourth, always a few tenths ahead of the impressive Matias Zagazeta, who was right on the pace on Saturday in both qualifying and the race after a quiet build up on the two test days prior to racing.

Sixth-placed Michael Shin would have perhaps been hoping for a slightly higher finishing spot than sixth after his form in testing, while seventh place Enzo Yeh from Chinese Taipei impressed with a robust race-long defence against talented US racer Josh Pierson. 

Neither would have expected Australia’s Patrick Heuzenroeder to split them in the end, after he dropped right to the back following a tussle at the first turn. He  spent the rest of the race clawing back as many places as he could and was one of the fastest throughout. By the end he had made five great passes and fought his way back to ninth. He only just missed out on eighth after a last minute attempt to pass Pierson, who hung on for the position.

Sebastian Manson was tenth and the second Kiwi home. Further back Shawn Rashid recovered from a stall at the start to make his way back into the action and pass both Canadian James Lawley and compatriot Barrett Wolfe for a top 15 finish.

With the weekend’s second race a reverse of the top eight finishing order from Saturday, it will be Pierson starting on pole position with Yeh alongside.

2025 Castrol Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Championship – Round 1 Race 1 RESULT