Zack Scoular surprised the Formula Regional Oceania field by taking pole and a lights-to-flag win on his debut Saturday at Taupō. The New Zealander sat down with Feeder Series to discuss his maiden victory, racing on home soil for the first time and how he’s approaching the upcoming round at Hampton Downs. 

By Kaylene Lau 

Heading into the FR Oceania championship, Scoular had no experience on any of the New Zealand tracks with the exception of Hampton Downs, where he won the Tony Quinn Foundation shootout.

It was also the MTEC driver’s first time racing in FR cars. He made the step up after F4 campaigns in the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates, where he lives. 

The 17-year-old surprised the field by taking pole position in Saturday’s qualifying session, which was interrupted early on by a red flag. Scoular had to get used to tyres that degraded much more quickly than those he knew from F4, especially on the abrasive 3.321-kilometre track. 

“The first push, the tyres were still coming in, and then the second push was the only push lap that anyone really got because the track is really high deg. So we did the push lap, and honestly, we got it together. There were a couple mistakes, but we ended up going pole,” he said. 

“We tried going again for another lap after that, but no one could really improve just because of the nature of the track.” 

Taking pole came as a surprise to Scoular, who said he and MTEC ‘didn’t look too bad’ in testing. Scoular finished sixth in the Group A test session, seventh in test session one and third in test session two. 

“Overnight, we went away, made some changes, made some changes to me, made some changes to the car, came back in the morning and made a huge step, and ended up going pole which I honestly didn’t expect. 

“Even on my in-lap, I asked my engineer, ‘Where did we finish?’ He said pole and I didn’t believe him. I had to ask him four times,” he said. 

“It wasn’t until I got directed to the P1 board in the parc fermé where I realised I actually got pole.” 

Scoular then converted pole to victory in race one, finishing 2.069 seconds ahead of reigning Supercars champion Will Brown and 3.131 seconds ahead of F2-bound Arvid Lindblad. Throughout the race, Scoular said he aimed to “not get distracted by what was going on in [his] mirrors” while also focusing on managing the tyres. 

“We got a good launch off the start, and for the first few laps, Will was pretty close. He was putting quite a bit of pressure, but I was just trying to keep focused.” 

During the race, Brown closed the gap to Scoular from 1.679s on lap eight of 17 to 0.777s on lap 13. Still, Scoular said he “was never really too worried” about losing the lead because of Taupō’s layout. 

“I knew that around this track it’s hard to overtake,” he said. “Then towards the end of the race, we upped our pace a bit, and we set the fastest lap of the race, and we got the gap to over two seconds and just managed it from there.”

The weekend was one to remember for Scoular. The New Zealander finished 10th in the second race, for which the top eight on the grid was reversed from race one’s finishing order. Also on Sunday, he qualified third in the second qualifying session of the weekend and took another podium with a third-place finish in race three. 

Before last weekend, Scoular had only taken one podium in cars, a third-place finish in the reverse-grid race at Brands Hatch in his British F4 campaign in 2024.

He said his British F4 campaign with Xcel Motorsport, which he finished 15th overall, had helped him acclimatise to new tracks such as those in New Zealand. 

“Over the course of the last year, it’s something which I really did learn to do, [to] build confidence of the track, just quicker and quicker,” Scoular said. 

“Some tracks that I’ve tested out in the UK, they’re pretty similar to the tracks over here in New Zealand. They’re very old school, not much run-off. You make a mistake, you’re in the grass, and you can’t really afford a mistake without losing a lot of time and losing a lot of positions. So it’s really helped me prepare for this.”

Dubai resident Scoular hadn’t raced on any of New Zealand’s tracks before last weekend.

“I’ve always wanted to race in New Zealand being where I’m from but just never really had the opportunity because we do most of our racing over in Europe. But when the opportunity came along, we couldn’t really say no to it and we took it straight away, he said. 

“Racing on home turf for the first time is pretty cool to me, and to be able to win for the first time that I raced in my home country, it’s really special.” 

That opportunity turned to reality at Hampton Downs, the track that hosts the series’ second round this weekend.

Last November, Scoular won the Tony Quinn Foundation shootout at the circuit, beating fellow FR Oceania competitors Sebastian Manson and Alex Crosbie. Tony Quinn, the owner of the foundation and its namesake, owns three out of FR Oceania’s five tracks – Taupō, Hampton Downs and Highlands. He is also the founder and leader of National Racing Group Promotions, which promotes the new NextGen NZ package on which FR Oceania races.

Scoular used the prize money from the shootout to enter the championship.

“It was a $NZ 70,000 scholarship towards a championship, which has obviously really helped me and my family in being able to do this,” Scoular said. “I can’t thank the Tony Quinn Foundation enough for that – they’re really good at finding New Zealand talent and finding New Zealand’s next world champion, so to be the driver which they’ve selected is pretty special.” 

As the round in Hampton Downs approaches, Scoular sits third in the standings with 68 points and aims to build on his successes from last weekend. 

“We’re going to be aiming to win and be at the front,” Scoular said about the upcoming round. “Coming into the championship, we didn’t know what was possible, but now after round one, it’s given us an idea.” 

Header photo credit: Andy Kruy / AK Creative