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Photo: Joel Hanks / TGR NZ

Ugo Ugochukwu won Formula Regional Oceania’s feature race at Hampton Downs – the Dorothy Smith Memorial Cup – to increase his early series lead.

Ugochukwu managed to do what no other polesitter had done in the weekend’s previous three races and retain the lead at the start, even though Jin Nakamura tried to hang on around his outside in Turn 1.

An incident in the middle of the pack on the run out of Turn 1 then led to the race being interrupted.

After qualifying an impressive ninth in his second single-seater qualifying session, Kalle Rovanpera got squeezed by Sebastian Manson as they looked to benefit from the tow down the long straight to Turn 2. Contact between them sent Rovanpera off to the right of track, making contact with the tyre barrier, while Manson’s spinning car was collected by Ryan Wood and Yevan David.

Wood was seen sarcastically applauding Manson for what he felt was an “unnecessary” squeeze, and the race was red-flagged to allow all four cars to be recovered.

At the restart, Nakamura stayed with Ugochukwu and used the push-to-pass a lap later to mount an attack towards Turn 2, but Ugochukwu also deployed the extra 25 horsepower to remain ahead and then gradually pulled away.

Hitech’s Toyota protege Nakamura did set the fastest lap on lap 20 of 23 to bring the deficit back under a second, only for M2 Competition driver Ugochukwu to respond on the following tour and finish up 1.254s clear.

Kanato Le beat Louis Sharp off the line to claim third and clinch his third podium from the weekend’s four races, as well as a double podium for Hitech on its debut in New Zealand.

Sharp did try to apply pressure to Le in the first half of the race but then fell into the clutches of Freddie Slater, who had been typically aggressive on the restart to dispatch of both Zack Scoular and Nolan Allaer.

Slater finally made a dive to Sharp’s inside in Turn 7 with five laps to go. Sharp managed to hold on, only to run wide through Turn 1 at the start of the next lap, allowing Slater to get up his inside into Turn 2. Slater ran wide and Sharp tried to take the cutback, but Slater sealed fourth place into Turn 3.

Race results (23 laps)

Pos
Driver
Team
Time

1
Ugo Ugochukwu
M2 Competition
37m08.390s

2
Jin Nakamura
Hitech GP
+1.254s

3
Kanato Le
Hitech GP
+6.196s

4
Freddie Slater
M2 Competition
+8.951s

5
Louis Sharp
MTEC Motorsport
+12.706s

6
Zack Scoular
MTEC Motorsport
+13.306s

7
Nolan Allaer
Giles Motorsport
+13.993s

8
Ernesto Rivera
M2 Competition
+17.677s

9
Yuanpu Cui
MTEC Motorsport
+18.506s

10
James Wharton
HMD w/ TJ Speed
+19.125s

11
Fionn McLaughlin
Hitech GP
+20.308s

12
Cooper Shipman
Kiwi Motorsport
+21.872s

13
Ricardo Baptista
HMD w/ TJ Speed
+32.734s

14
Trevor LaTourrette
HMD w/ TJ Speed
+1m01.434s

Ret
Kalle Rovanpera
Hitech GP

Ret
Sebastian Manson
M2 Competition

Ret
Ryan Wood
MTEC Motorsport

Ret
Yevan David
Kiwi Motorsport

Ret
Jack Taylor
Giles Motorsport

Fastest lap: Nakamura, 1m29.843s

Championship standings
1 Ugochukwu 113   2 Nakamura 95   3 Le 87   4 Slater 74   5 Sharp 70   6 Scoular 62   7  Rivera 57   8 Wharton 46   9 David 44   10 Allaer 44