Ugo Ugochukwu clean swept Sunday’s CTFROT action at Hampton Downs. Image: John Cowpland
The American was unstoppable in 23-lap feature race, the Dorothy Smith Memorial Cup, with an unchallenged lights-to-flag win.
The only interruption to his dominance was an early red flag for a wild opening-lap crash that took the likes of Kalle Rovanpera and Ryan Wood out of contention.
From the restart onwards it was all about Ugochukwu, who held a steady lead over Jin Nakamura across the distance to secure victory.
It was Ugochukwu second win of the day, following an impressive drive from fourth on the grid in the first of the two Sunday encounters.
That has left him with an 18-point lead after the first of four rounds.
“It’s been a great weekend overall,” he said.
“That race was really tricky, conditions were really hot so I had to look after the tyres. Jin was really quick the whole race, he did a good race. I had to keep pushing the whole way and super happy to come home with the win.”
Kanato Le made it two Japanese drivers on the podium for the finale with a distant third place behind Ugochukwu and Nakamura.
The Hitech driver did come up under some early pressure from Louis Sharp, only for the Kiwi to lose ground as the race wore on.
Sharp ended up falling back into the clutches of Freddie Slater, the pair staging an epic late-race battle over fourth place.
Slater’s pressure eventually got to Sharp, who ran wide into Turn 1 on Lap 19 and allowed the Briton to get a run and grab fourth into Turn 2.
Zack Scoular came home sixth ahead of Nolan Allaer, Ernesto Rivera and Yuanpu Cui.
Aussie James Wharton rounded out the top 10.
CTFROT continues at Taupo next weekend.
Results: Formula Regional Oceania Trophy Hampton Downs, Race 3
Pos
Country
Name
No.
Laps
Diff
Best Time
1
USA
Ugo Ugochukwu
4
18
01:30.341
2
JPN
Kanato Le
19
18
00:01.122
01:30.366
3
MEX
Ernesto Rivera
24
18
00:02.051
01:30.461
4
JPN
Jin Nakamura
12
18
00:02.656
01:30.425
5
AUS
James Wharton
13
18
00:03.684
01:30.665
6
NZL
Sebastian Manson
22
18
00:05.351
01:30.864
7
LKA
Yevan David
21
18
00:06.720
01:30.758
8
CHN
Yuanpu Cui
5
18
00:07.792
01:30.893
9
GBR
Freddie Slater
27
18
00:08.274
01:30.499
10
USA
Nolan Allaer
52
18
00:08.499
01:30.936
11
NZL
Louis Sharp
11
18
00:09.113
01:30.577
12
IRL
Fionn McLaughlin
33
18
00:09.115
01:30.856
13
FIN
Kalle Rovanpera
69
18
00:09.547
01:30.686
14
AUS
Jack Taylor
50
18
00:10.318
01:30.584
15
USA
Cooper Shipman
14
18
00:10.616
01:31.179
16
BRA
Ricardo Baptista
41
18
00:11.268
01:31.498
17
NZL
Zack Scoular
3
18
00:12.474
01:30.332
18
NZL
Ryan Wood
40
18
00:14.786
01:30.471
DNF
USA
Trevor LaTourrette
8
11
DNF
01:31.995
Results: Formula Regional Oceania Trophy Hampton Downs, Race 4
Pos
Country
Name
No.
Laps
Diff
Best Time
1
USA
Ugo Ugochukwu
4
23
01:29.980
2
JPN
Jin Nakamura
12
23
00:01.254
01:29.843
3
JPN
Kanato Le
19
23
00:06.196
01:30.405
4
GBR
Freddie Slater
27
23
00:08.951
01:29.994
5
NZL
Louis Sharp
11
23
00:12.706
01:30.433
6
NZL
Zack Scoular
3
23
00:13.306
01:30.252
7
USA
Nolan Allaer
52
23
00:13.993
01:30.167
8
MEX
Ernesto Rivera
24
23
00:17.677
01:30.492
9
CHN
Yuanpu Cui
5
23
00:18.506
01:30.590
10
AUS
James Wharton
13
23
00:19.125
01:30.511
11
IRL
Fionn McLaughlin
33
23
00:20.308
01:30.403
12
USA
Cooper Shipman
14
23
00:21.872
01:30.488
13
BRA
Ricardo Baptista
41
23
00:32.734
01:31.168
14
USA
Trevor LaTourrette
8
23
01:01.434
01:31.949
DNF
NZL
Sebastian Manson
22
DNF
DNF
FIN
Kalle Rovanpera
69
DNF
DNF
NZL
Ryan Wood
40
DNF
DNF
LKA
Yevan David
21
DNF
DNS
AUS
Jack Taylor
50
DNS
