{"id":406211,"date":"2026-01-11T12:35:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T12:35:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/406211\/"},"modified":"2026-01-11T12:35:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T12:35:09","slug":"ugochukwu-soars-to-first-fregional-oceania-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/406211\/","title":{"rendered":"Ugochukwu soars to first FRegional Oceania win"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t12
\n\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

Photo: Joel Hanks \/ TGR NZ<\/p>\n

Ugo Ugochukwu claimed his first Formula Regional Oceania win from fourth on the grid in race three at Hampton Downs.<\/p>\n

Ernesto Rivera started from pole position courtesy of his fastest lap in race two, but the Red Bull junior seemed slow to react when the lights went out. Kanato Le claimed the lead from the outside of the front row, followed by Ugochukwu then took a look to the outside of the leader into Turn 2.<\/p>\n

After biding his time early on, it was in the same place on lap eight that Ugochukwu made his move for the lead, challenging Le on the outside into Turn 2 and then claiming the inside line into Turn 3 to move ahead.<\/p>\n

Ugochukwu was just under a second clear of Le when the safety car was deployed on lap 13 of 18 after Trevor LaTourrette became beached in the gravel trap, but wasn\u2019t troubled by the subsequent restart and took victory by 1.122 seconds.<\/p>\n

Le picked up his second podium from three races ahead of Rivera, who managed to keep Jin Nakamura at bay, while James Wharton beat Louis Sharp to fifth.<\/p>\n

Sharp spent most of the race battling for position with Freddie Slater after they shared the fourth row of the grid. Slater had got back in front on lap three, and then tried to attack Wharton at the restart with three laps remaining. However, he found himself being repassed by Sharp, and then being shuffled out wide onto the marbles and tumbling down the order to 12th.<\/p>\n

Kalle Rovanpera finished three places further back in 15th after a strong early display of single-seater racecraft with a double move on Cadi Baptista and Jack Taylor through Turns 2 and 3.<\/p>\n

Race results (18 laps)<\/p>\n

Pos
\nDriver
\nTeam
\nTime<\/p>\n

1
\nUgo Ugochukwu
\nM2 Competition
\n29m57.204s<\/p>\n

2
\nKanato Le
\nHitech GP
\n+1.122s<\/p>\n

3
\nErnesto Rivera
\nM2 Competition
\n+2.051s<\/p>\n

4
\nJin Nakamura
\nHitech GP
\n+2.656s<\/p>\n

5
\nJames Wharton
\nHMD w\/ TJ Speed
\n+3.684s<\/p>\n

6
\nLouis Sharp
\nMTEC Motorsport
\n+4.113s<\/p>\n

7
\nRyan Wood
\nMTEC Motorsport
\n+4.786s<\/p>\n

8
\nSebastian Manson
\nM2 Competition
\n+5.351s<\/p>\n

9
\nYevan David
\nGiles Motorsport
\n+6.720s<\/p>\n

10
\nZack Scoular
\nMTEC Motorsport
\n+7.474s<\/p>\n

11
\nYuanpu Cui
\nMTEC Motorsport
\n+7.792s<\/p>\n

12
\nFreddie Slater
\nM2 Competition
\n+8.274s<\/p>\n

13
\nNolan Allaer
\nKiwi Motorsport
\n+8.499s<\/p>\n

14
\nFionn McLaughlin
\nHitech GP
\n+9.115s<\/p>\n

15
\nKalle Rovanpera
\nHitech GP
\n+9.547s<\/p>\n

16
\nJack Taylor
\nGiles Motorsport
\n+10.318s<\/p>\n

17
\nCooper Shipman
\nHMD w\/ TJ Speed
\n+10.616s<\/p>\n

18
\nCadi Baptista
\nKiwi Motorsport
\n+11.268s<\/p>\n

Ret
\nTrevor LaTourrette
\nHMD w\/ TJ Speed<\/p>\n

Fastest lap: Scoular, 1m30.332s<\/p>\n

Championship standings
1\u00a0Ugochukwu 78\u00a0 \u00a02\u00a0Nakamura 64\u00a0 \u00a03\u00a0Le 60\u00a0 \u00a04\u00a0Sharp 58\u00a0 \u00a05\u00a0Wood 56\u00a0 \u00a06\u00a0Scoular 50\u00a0 \u00a07\u00a0Slater 45\u00a0 \u00a08\u00a0 Rivera 41\u00a0 \u00a09\u00a0David 40\u00a0 \u00a010 Wharton 34<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"12 Photo: Joel Hanks \/ TGR NZ Ugo Ugochukwu claimed his first Formula Regional Oceania win from fourth…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":406212,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,214396,214397,215333,806,805,803,804,85,215334],"class_list":["post-406211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-formula-regional-oceania","tag-hampton-downs","tag-m2-competition","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-sports","tag-ugo-ugochukwu"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406211","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=406211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406211\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/406212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=406211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=406211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=406211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}