Out at Queensland Raceway, Jackson Culver emerged victorious from a three-way title fight in the Gen1 class to become New Zealand’s first AU4 champion. Now preparing to step up to Gen2 in 2027, the 15-year-old spoke with Feeder Series about the calculated approach that secured his title and the lessons he’ll carry into the next chapter.

By Anabelle Bremner

“I’m a very clean driver. I’m the type to give someone room. I’ll back out if it’s too dangerous.”

It’s an unusual sentiment to hear from a 15-year-old, but it’s to this very attitude that Jackson Culver attributes his AU4 Gen1 title.

Though he admits the temptation to ‘throw it down the inside and pray’ came up a few times this year, resisting in favour of ‘thought-out’ moves and careful strategy handed the teenager this year’s championship.

Culver is no stranger to the record books. He’s New Zealand’s youngest-ever race winner, having taken a Formula First victory at just 12 years and 225 days, and this year he became the youngest-ever Kiwi to race on the international formula racing ladder. With this championship, he’s also the first non-Australian to take out an AU4 title.

That title was not easily won, though, with the top three – Culver, Koby Wilson and Lewis Gotch – trading places all season.

“We definitely knew it was going to be really close with Koby, but we actually didn’t think Lewis was just going to come out of the water and absolutely destroy us in some rounds,” Culver says.

Heading into the season finale at Queensland Raceway, it was undoubtedly anyone’s game – just 13 points separated the frontrunning trio.

A tough battle in race one left Culver in third, nine points behind winner Wilson. It looked as though the title had slipped through his hands until the call came before the final race – Wilson had been disqualified, giving Culver the race two win and a 16-point advantage. It was back on.

“Before we went into race three, I’d spoken to a couple of people, and they’d told me that I only had to finish P3 and keep it clean to win the championship,” Culver says. “In that race especially I had to make sure I was thinking before I hopped in the car. I had to have a bit of a plan.”

He kept it clean. Coming home in third handed him the championship victory by only five points from Wilson, Gotch a further five behind.

“As I crossed the finish line, they gave me a radio message to let me know I’d done it,” he recalls. “I was so happy. It took a lot of hard work, but it all paid off in the end.”

The result reinforced the approach Culver has taken all season: when the stakes are high, staying calm can make all the difference.

“When you’re in that situation, you have to keep a clear head. If you’re flustered before you get in the car, you’re going to drive like that. You’ll never do as well as you actually can,” he says.

It’s a lesson he’s had from several directions this year. His own experience, his Gen2 teammates, and friends and mentors outside the sport have all hammered in one message: focus.

“I have to focus on the task in front of me, focus on myself and my own race,” he says. “Even in engineering, we’re not really looking at the other guys. Of course we’re thinking about what might happen in the race, but overall, I’m focused on myself the entire weekend.”

He’s certain this mentality will serve him well, especially as he transitions into the Gen2 class in 2027.

“I talked to Jensen [Marold, Gen2 champion] about it at The Bend,” he recalls. “He said the cars are really similar, but it’s a lot harder to get really far ahead in the Tatuus.”

The Gen2 cars are significantly faster than the Mygale chassis that Culver ran this year, and the margins are notably tighter within the class. The New Zealander describes them as ‘easier to drive’ overall thanks to a lighter brake and more receptive steering wheel, but ‘harder on your body’, and he acknowledges that stepping into a new class will expose new challenges.

“It’ll really depend on what the field is like next year,” he says. “Maybe it’ll be Koby and Lewis, maybe some new kids stepping up from karts. I think we’ll have to put in a lot more hard work, and I reckon the field will be bigger, but the plan is definitely to win again. I think we have a good shot at it.”

For all his focus on what lies ahead, Culver has already built a considerable foundation in single-seater racing. He first climbed into a kart at six, progressing through the ranks in both New Zealand and Australia before making his car racing debut at eleven. In Formula First, he got to grips with cars and took his first-ever race win in the discipline.

“Formula First definitely helped a lot,” he reflects. “I learned how to use the clutch, how to do the braking and all that. And because it’s a lower level, it wasn’t as stressful as AU4.”

The transition brought new technical demands, particularly when it came to tyre management. While Formula First required little attention to tyre conservation, AU4’s slick tyres presented a different challenge, one Culver has had to learn to navigate throughout the season. The move to Gen2 will introduce another strategy variable in that drivers are offered two sets of tyres across the weekend.

Now, with a championship behind him and another step up on the horizon, the teenager is already looking further afield. His ultimate ambition is Formula 1, and he sees Europe as the most likely route towards that goal.

“It’s a lot of hard work, and it’s still quite far away,” he says. “But at the moment, the way we’re going, it doesn’t seem unrealistic.”

Header photo credit: JCR Multimedia