Alex Crosbie, of Invercargill, holds off Australians Patrick Heuzenroeder and Nicolas Stati during the first race of the 2025 Castrol Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Championship at Taupō International Motorsport Park.
Driving his Castrol Toyota FT-60 at a circuit he excelled at last year, the 18-year-old Southlander recorded finishes of 11th, 15th and 11th to leave the round 13th in the championship.
Crosbie struggled with the balance of his car throughout practice on Friday.
"We didn't have the best tyres and Taupō is tough on tyres. When we changed tyres the balance was the complete opposite so it was not ideal."
He qualified 13th for the opening race of the round on Saturday.
"I went off on one of my push laps. It felt like a pretty good lap but we just didn't have the pace."
Come race time that afternoon and Crosbie quickly made up two positions and ran 10th for several laps before losing a spot to Australian Patrick Heuzenroeder to cross the line 11th.
Qualifying for the feature race of the round, the Denny Hulme Memorial Trophy race, was held on Sunday morning and Crosbie qualified 14th as he again battled with the balance of the car and tyres, leaving him unable to push to the limit.
Before the feature race, the second race of the round was held and he made a good start only to encounter a concertina of traffic early on the opening lap.
"I went wide to avoid contact and got tagged and spun by someone behind me."
He resumed well behind the field but worked his way back to catch Barrett Wolfe, of the United States, before passing him at turn one late in the race.
"I actually had quite good pace although I was struggling a bit with front grip which caused understeer."
Crosbie then caught Canadian James Lawley.
"I was a lot quicker than him through the combination of turns two, three and four, but I made contact and got a five second penalty."
More penalties resulted soon after when Crosbie was turned around, the offending driver penalised 30 seconds. However, he copped another 10 seconds as he made contact as he flicked his car around to resume racing, leaving him 15th at the end.
In the Denny Hulme Memorial Trophy race over 23 laps, he started 14th and gained several places. He gained another position from Nicholas Monteiro, of Brazil, before the tyres went off.
"I really struggled at turn 11 after that. I had a bit of understeer and was struggling to get the power down for the long run down the straight."
Crosbie finished the race 11th, which "was not the weekend I was hoping for".
United Arab Emirates domiciled Kiwi Zack Scoular, Matias Zagazeta, of Peru, and Arvid Linblad, of the United Kingdom, took the three race wins across the weekend.
The next round of the championship takes place at Hampton Downs Motorsport Park in North Waikato this weekend as part of the Repco NextGen NZ Championship.
Support for Crosbie's campaign in the championship comes from Castrol, Stresscrete Southland, the Peter H.
McMillan Legacy Fund, Kiwi Skips, Invercargill Hose and Hydraulics, Kiwi Driver Fund and Golden Homes in the Southern Lakes.
- By Lindsay Beer
