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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/scoular-2026.jpg\")
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Photo: Bruce Jenkins \/ TGR NZ<\/p>\n
MTEC Motorsport\u2019s Zack Scoular won the second Formula Regional Oceania race, and first reversed-grid contest of 2026, at Hampton Downs.<\/p>\n
He overtook Kiwi Motorsport\u2019s Yevan David off the line, as Hitech GP\u2019s Jin Nakamura took third from M2 Competition\u2019s Freddie Slater before the latter reclaimed the place around the outside of turn one.<\/p>\n
The pair continued squabbling until the safety car was summoned. HMD Motorsports with TJ Speed\u2019s James Wharton had been spun by M2\u2019s Sebastian Manson (who got a drive-through penalty) and looked to be beached, but got going again.<\/p>\n
Racing however did not resume until lap four, and Nakamura was already alongside David at that point. In response, David went deep into turn one and then defended exiting the corner to stay ahead, then Slater and Nakamura went wheel-to-wheel again for several corners.<\/p>\n
They banged wheels, Nakamura held third, and in the queue forming behind them Hitech\u2019s Kanato Le lost his front wing.<\/p>\n
Scoular broke clear by two seconds, and maintained that gap for the rest of the race until he weaved to the finish line.<\/p>\n
Nakamura went down David\u2019s inside at turn two on lap seven, and second place was settled as David locked up and then had to defend. Slater made contact with him as he tried passing, but soon he and MTEC\u2019s Ryan Wood got ahead.<\/p>\n
Wood\u2019s first attempt at overtaking Slater was around the outside of turn one on lap 10 of 18, and four laps later a turn two dive also failed. Slater locked up at turn eight though, and David was all over him. On lap 16, Wood went wide exiting turn one and Slater had a little bit of breathing room thereon.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was the longest race ever,\u201d said Slater afterwards. \u201cToo much pressure from behind, didn\u2019t really have any pace to answer. So we definitely need to do some digging overnight to find some more laptime.\u201d<\/p>\n
David was down to ninth by the finish, ahead of the constantly squabbling Red Bull-backed duo of Fionn McLaughlin and single-seater debutant Kalle Rovanpera.<\/p>\n
However post-race there were a fleet of penalties for idential offences, with Louis Sharp (MTEC), Nolan Allaer (Giles Motorsport), Jack Taylor (Giles) being demoted from sixth, seventh and eighth to 13th, ninth and 10th.<\/p>\n
Several drivers further back pitted, seeking fresher rubber and clean air to go for the fastest lap which will impact race four\u2019s grid. It was claimed by M2\u2019s Ernesto Rivera.<\/p>\n
Race results (18 laps)<\/p>\n
Pos
\nDriver
\nTeam
\nTime<\/p>\n
1
\nZack Scoular
\nMTEC Motorsport
\n29m39.018s<\/p>\n
2
\nJin Nakamura
\nHitech GP
\n+1.779s<\/p>\n
3
\nFreddie Slater
\nM2 Competition
\n+7.155s<\/p>\n
4
\nRyan Wood
\nMTEC Motorsport
\n+7.800s<\/p>\n
5
\nUgo Ugochukwu
\nM2 Competition
\n+8.968s<\/p>\n
6
\nYevan David
\nKiwi Motorsport
\n+22.914s<\/p>\n
7
\nFionn McLaughlin
\nHitech GP
\n+22.941s<\/p>\n
8
\nCooper Shipman
\nKiwi Motorsport
\n+26.293s<\/p>\n
9
\nNolan Allaer
\nGiles Motorsport
\n+28.660s<\/p>\n
10
\nJack Taylor
\nGiles Motorsport
\n+36.685s<\/p>\n
11
\nTrevor LaTourrette
\nHMD w\/ TJ Speed
\n+36.916s<\/p>\n
12
\nKalle Rovanpera
\nHitech GP
\n+39.490s<\/p>\n
13
\nLouis Sharp
\nMTEC Motorsport
\n+40.217s<\/p>\n
14
\nKanato Le
\nHitech GP
\n+1m14.043s<\/p>\n
15
\nCadi Baptista
\nHMD w\/ TJ Speed
\n+1 lap<\/p>\n
16
\nSebastian Manson
\nM2 Competition
\n+1 lap<\/p>\n
17
\nJames Wharton
\nHMD w\/ TJ Speed
\n+2 laps<\/p>\n
18
\nYuanpu Cui
\nMTEC Motorsport
\n+4 laps<\/p>\n
Ret
\nErnesto Rivera
\nM2 Competition<\/p>\n
Fastest lap: Rivera, 1m29.705s<\/p>\n
Championship standings
1 Ugochukwu 43\u00a0 \u00a02 Nakamura 40\u00a0 \u00a03 Scoular 38\u00a0 \u00a04 Sharp 38\u00a0 \u00a05 Wood 38\u00a0 \u00a06 Slater 36\u00a0 \u00a07 Le 29\u00a0 \u00a08 David 26\u00a0 \u00a09 McLaughlin 17\u00a0 \u00a010 Allaer 14<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"14 Photo: Bruce Jenkins \/ TGR NZ MTEC Motorsport\u2019s Zack Scoular won the second Formula Regional Oceania race,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":405285,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,214396,214397,806,805,803,804,214398,85,214903],"class_list":["post-405284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-formula-regional-oceania","tag-hampton-downs","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-mtec-motorsport","tag-sports","tag-zack-scoular"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=405284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405284\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/405285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=405284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=405284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=405284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}