Jin Nakamura, Kanato Le, Yevan David and Yuanpu Chi begin Round 1 of Castrol-Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Trophy in Hamptons, New Zealand with a consistent Top 10 finish throughout the weekend. The quartet showcased impressive pace in a grid where the Top 17 closed within a second of each other. Despite minor setbacks, The Asian drivers show promise for the upcoming races and hope to keep a consistent run of form.
The weekend at Hamptons Down began where the driver acclimated themselves to the track, with Nakauma and Le driving with Hi-Tech, David with Kiwi Motorsport and Cui with MTEC Motorsport. The gap between the Top 15 was found to be covered by a second or less, establishing the grid to be extremely competitive, with Nakamura being the fastest during the afternoon session.
The first Qualifying session proved to be incredibly close with Kanato Le securing a P4, Nakamura finishing just outside the third row at 6th, David qualifying at 9th and Cui at 11th with Red Bull junior Ernesto Rivera pipping him at the last minute.
With the grid set to complete the first round of CTFROT, the race began with a clean start from all drivers where Nakamura attempted to attack to pass Le but lost his position to Wood who took the advantage of the newly introduced “push to pass” button with a clear speed advantage. While Yevan David had a quiet race finishing in 8th, Chi finished 11th, only a tenth shy of the top 10. The Hi-Tech teammates finished within the top 5 with Le securing a podium in Round 1 and Nakamura coming in 5th.
With the grid starting reversed for Race 2, Yevan david began the second round in pole position. Slater managed to get past David with an impressive move with the aid of the new “push to pass” button which pushed David to 2nd. A competitive battle behind the top 2 saw close competitiveness with the involvement of 4 cars. This cost Le his front wing who veered off to the pits, leaving Nakamura competing to complete the podium. Nakamura made a clean move past David for 2nd position as the seventh lap of the race began and showed impressive pace to build a quick advantage of a few tenths. David was unable to defend his position and saw a pass from Wood. This initiated the Sri Lankan to fall at the back of the grid, losing positions in quick succession but held up Yuanpau Chi, who was at 12th but eventually lost pace and fell to the back of the grid.
The end of Race 2 saw Nakamura finishing at P2 despite closing in on the race leader, and David eventually finishing at P6.
The Second Qualifying round was close yet again, with the session coming alive towards the end of the session, when fuel loads were lighter. Nakamura was only 3 tenths shy off pole Qualifying at P2 and Le at P4. Cui and David qualified at 13th and 16th respectively.
Race 3 began with Le making an impressive start, applying the pressure on Ugochukwu for the race lead, effectively at the straight of the second lap having a lead of almost a second off Ugochukwu and 2 seconds ahead of Red Bull Junior Ernesto Riviera. Meanwhile, Jin Nakamura at 4th had a close battle with Wharton, Slater, Sharp and Wood and was able to gain a position, going up to P3. Le was passed by Ugochukwu who was outright the quickest driver throughout the weekend by Lap 8. The Hi-Tech drivers secured a top 5 finish yet again with inverted results from qualifying with Kanato Le securing second place and Nakamura a P4. David had an anonymous race but managed to secure a P9, with Cui rounding off the Top 10.
Race 4 proved to be yet another action packed race with a collision between Rovanpera and Manson causing David to retire from the race as well. The race saw both Hi-Tech drivers locking out P2 and P3 on the podium, with Le defending impressively from Sharp. Nakamura clinched the fastest lap of the session, with his best time being a 1:29.843.
