Written by Lorenzo Baer, Edited by Vyas Ponnuri
After four rounds and 12 races, the 2025 Castrol Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Championship has reached its decisive moment. In the traditional New Zealand Grand Prix, contested on the treacherous 4.01km Highlands circuit, who emerged on top?
A quick recap of the season so far
The New Zealand GP was just the final stop of the Formula Regional Oceania Championship (FROC), a tournament that began almost a month earlier at Taupo International Motorsport Park. Featuring three races every weekend, the Denny Hulme Memorial Trophy was also up for grabs in the season opener, in honour of the former Kiwi F1 champion.
Soon after, it was Hampton Downs Motorsport Park's turn to become the second stop of the tournament, promoting the Dorothy Smith Memorial Trophy. Then, a stopover in Manfeild, to compete for the Dan Higgins Trophy.
The fourth stopover of the year was at the traditional Teretonga Park, one of the oldest circuits still in operation in New Zealand, opened in 1957. The Spirit of a Nation Cup would be just a prologue to the great culmination of the tournament at Highlands Motorsport Park, where the New Zealand GP was hosted.
There were four teams actively participating in the FR Oceania tournament: M2 Competition, Kiwi Motorsport, Giles Motorsport and MTEC Motorsport, all equipped with Tatuus FT-60 chassis, thrusted by 2.0-litre turbocharged Toyota engines running on 100% bio-fuels.
The highlight of the year until the NZGP was M2 Competition’s Arvid Lindblad,. The 17-year-old Anglo-Swedish driver, who is part of the Red Bull Junior Team squad, had an excellent campaign in the first four weekends. Except of two races during the entire 2025 FR Oceania campaign, Lindblad finished in all other races within the podium positions.
This record allowed the driver to build a considerable advantage over his pursuers, namely American Nikita Johnson, Lindblad's M2 teammate, and the New Zealander Zack Scoular, from MTEC Motorsport.
Despite not having won a single victory in the first four rounds of the year (in contrast to two by Scoular), Johnson was Lindblad's biggest threat in the Grand Prix, as the American’s consistent performance translated into second in the tournament, less than 50 points behind Lindblad in the standings.
The New Zealand Grand Prix
Free Practices and Qualis
Track activities for the GP began on Thursday, with free practice divided into two sessions. In the first practice on the twisty Highlands circuit, it was Giles Motorsport racer Will Brown on top. In the second session, he had to settle for second, losing the crown to Alex Crosbie, another of Gilles' pilots, who set a time of 1m30.799.
On Friday, there were three more practice sessions. It was MTEC Motorsport’s Patrick Heuzenroeder who set the fastest time of the day, the Australian clocking a lap time in 1:29.510.
However, these times did not have as much significance, as the moment of truth was scheduled for the early hours of Saturday morning, when the official qualifying sessions to define the starting grid for the three races of the weekend took place.
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 performers, to determine the first four rows for the Grand Prix.
When defining the grid for races 1 and 2, it was Heuzenroeder who once again came out on top, sharing the front row with current championship leader Lindblad.
However, the classification that all drivers were aiming for was the last one, which would define the starting positions for the weekend's featured event. Broc Feeney, the Australian GT sensation making his single-seater debut, was the big name here.
As the great surprise of the whole event, the 22-year-old driver set the best time of the session, with 1:29.032s, guaranteeing the right to start at the top position of the 69th New Zealand Grand Prix.
The races
The first race of the weekend took place a few hours after the end of qualifying. Heuzenroeder held onto the first place, despite a strong attack from Lindblad in the first moments of the race. The field quickly settled down for the 18-lap race, and it wasn't long before the leading pair began to distance themselves from the rest.
Up front, Heuzenroeder set the pace, as Lindblad kept the Australian within his attacking zone. The difference between the two was always around half a second. The immediate challenge were the South Korean Michael Shin and the Aussie Will Brown.
No major changes disturbed the pace of the race until lap 11, when Lindblad began to lose ground to Heuzenroeder, falling back towards the Shin and Brown battle. However, the Brit held off the pressure of his pursuers, keeping at the bay the attacks of Shin and Brown.
In a comfortable situation, Heuzenroeder had no problem securing victory, followed by Lindblad and Shin. Even without victory, the Red Bull junior ended up being the big winner of the first race of the weekend, as the points gained with second place were enough to give the 17-year-old the 2025 FR Oceania title.
The second heat opened Sunday's racing activities. Right at the start, it became clear that this race would be very different from the first, with the drivers taking more risks to achieve better positions in the event.
This point materialised in an accident right in the first corner, involving some of the main characters of the weekend so far. Patrick Heuzenroeder, Michael Shin and newly-crowned champion Arvid Lindblad were all caught up in the chaos that ensued, after the trio tried to go wheel-to-wheel over who would have the right to take the best line in the corner.
The result: Lindblad went into the tire barrier, and Heuzenroeder and Shin both sustained suspension damage which put them out of the race. The safety car was soon activated, continuing on the track until the fifth lap.
At that moment, the leader was Nikita Johnson, who had taken advantage of the advantage given by the reversed grid in the second race. Behind followed Nicholas Monteiro and Shawn Rashid.
Despite an aggressive restart from Rashid, the American was unable to gain any more positions. Otherwise, there was little in the race, with the drivers reserving themselves to follow each other until the end of the heat – certainly, the image of the accident on the first lap being a determining factor in delimiting this pace.
Thus, Nikita Johnson had no problem securing his first victory of the season, followed by Monteiro and Rashid.
But there was no time for celebration, as the big moment not only of the weekend, but of the entire FR Oceania season had arrived: the 69th New Zealand GP.
As the lights went out, drivers zipped on the first of the 27 laps for the race. Will Brown jumped into the lead, followed by Zack Scoular and Broc Feeney. Shawn Rashid was in fourth, with Arvid Lindblad rounding out the top-five.
By the end of the lap, Rashid had already overtaken Fenney, taking third from the Australian driver. The good pace at the beginning of the contest would be broken soon after, with the safety car making its appearance after a collision between Enzo Yeh and James Lawley.
The restart occurred on lap six and, despite attempts from Scoular and Rashid, Brown did not let his lead be seriously threatened.
Heuzenroeder, the name of the classification and winner of the first heat of the weekend, was forced to retire on lap 9, suffering damage to his rear suspension after light contact with the wall.
At the halfway mark, Brown had a 0.750s advantage over Scoular, with Rashid a further second behind. A couple laps later, however, Shawn lost contact with the leaders, now getting involved in the skirmish between Feeney and Lindblad.
On lap 15 the MTEC Motorsport drivers swapped positions. Feeney didn’t have the opportunity to enjoy the moment, though. Only a few moments later, he went out the track at the forest hairpin, allowing both Rashid and Lindblad to go by.
With seven laps to go, Brown made his move to secure the victory in the race, stretching his lead over Scoular to over a second, perhaps aware of a charging Lindblad behind clocking fast laps, often a second quicker per lap than the two leaders.
Nevertheless the gap between Brown and Scoular reduced on lap 23, with the two drivers once again separated by less than one second.
Scoular could feel victory, and put in his fastest laps of the race as he piled pressure on the leader. Brown answered, setting his own fast laps. Lindblad was still closing on both of them, but the distance was too great for the Brit to overcome.
Fortunately for Brown, he had done enough. Leading from start to finish, he took the chequered flag, to become the eighth Australian to win the New Zealand Grand Prix, and the first since Warwick Brown in 1975. He was followed by Scoular in second, while Lindblad rounded out the podium with third.
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