2024 Formula Regional Oceania Championship

The 2024 Castrol Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Championship was the second season of the Formula Regional Oceania Championship, and the nineteenth running of the premier open-wheel motorsport category formerly known as the Toyota Racing Series, held in New Zealand. It was held over five consecutive weekends in January and February 2024.

For the first time in the history of the championship and its predecessors, the highest placed Australian or Kiwi driver after the first two rounds was awarded the Tasman Cup that had previously been awarded to the winner of the Tasman Series up until 2023.^[1] Australian driver Christian Mansell was second overall after the second round at Manfeild, thereby taking this title.^[2]

Roman Bilinski, driving for M2 Competition, claimed the championship at the penultimate race of the season. Kiwi Motorsport driver Patrick Woods-Toth took the rookie title at the same race.

All drivers competed with identical Tatuus FT-60 chassis cars powered by 2.0L turbocharged Toyota engines.^[3] The series switched its tyre supplier from Hankook to Pirelli because of a fire at Hankook's factory in Daejeon that caused widespread supply issues.^[4] The series supplied all cars with 100% fossil-free fuel, becoming the first Formula Regional championship to take this sustainability step.^[5]

Team No. Driver Status Rounds M2 Competition 4 Roman Bilinski[6] All 7 Nicola Lacorte[7] R 1–3 16 Michael Shin[8] All 23 Liam Sceats[9] All 27 Bryce Aron[10] 4–5 39 Gerrard Xie[a][11] All 101 Ryder Quinn[12] 5 mtec Motorsport 5 Lucas Fecury[13] All 6 Tommy Smith[14] 1–3 17 Callum Hedge[15] 5 19 Elliott Cleary[16] R 1–3, 5 48 Kaden Probst[17] R 1–4 51 Jacob Abel[18] 4–5 Kiwi Motorsport 14 Patrick Woods-Toth[19] R All 20 Jake Bonilla[20] R All 22 Jett Bowling[21] R All 31 Titus Sherlock[22] R All Giles Motorsport 15 Kaleb Ngatoa[23] All 41 Alex Crosbie[24] R All 69 Sebastian Manson[25] R 4–5 71 Christian Mansell[26] 1–2 739 Landan Matriano Lim[27] R All

Icon Status R Rookie G Guest driver

Even before the 2023 season had begun, New Zealand's national motorsport governing body had already announced the 2024 calendar. The championship again consisted of five weekends. The round at Teretonga Park was dropped, instead the series returned to Euromarque Motorsport Park for the first time since 2018.^[28]

The 68th running of the New Zealand Grand Prix was held as the final race of the season, at Highlands Motorsport Park.^[29]

Round		Circuit	Date	Support bill	Map of circuit locations
1	R1	Taupo International Motorsport Park (Taupō, Waikato)	20 January	Taupo Historic Grand Prix Historic Touring Cars NZ Formula Junior NZ NZ Historic Muscle & Saloon Cars	Taupo Manfeild Hampton Downs Ruapuna Highlands
	R2		21 January
	R3
2	R1	Manfeild: Circuit Chris Amon (Feilding, Manawatū District)	27 January	New Zealand GT Championship TGR 86 Series NZ Super V8 Series TA2 New Zealand
	R2		28 January
	R3
3	R1	Hampton Downs Motorsport Park (Hampton Downs, North Waikato)	3 February	New Zealand Porsche Series Championship GT Racing New Zealand NZ Formula First Championship Superkart Drivers Club Series
	R2		4 February
	R3
4	R1	Euromarque Motorsport Park (Christchurch, Canterbury)	10 February	Lady Wigram Trophy Trans-Tasman Challenge New Zealand GT Championship TGR 86 Series NZ
	R2		11 February
	R3
5	R1	Highlands Motorsport Park (Cromwell, Otago)	17 February	New Zealand Grand Prix Trans-Tasman Challenge New Zealand GT Championship TGR 86 Series NZ
	R2		18 February
	R3

Round		Circuit	Pole position	Fastest lap	Winning driver	Winning team
1	R1	Taupo International Motorsport Park	Christian Mansell	Roman Bilinski	Roman Bilinski	M2 Competition
	R2			Alex Crosbie	Gerrard Xie	M2 Competition
	R3		Christian Mansell	Christian Mansell	Roman Bilinski	M2 Competition
2	R1	Manfeild: Circuit Chris Amon	Roman Bilinski	Nicola Lacorte	Roman Bilinski	M2 Competition
	R2			Kaleb Ngatoa	Christian Mansell	Giles Motorsport
	R3		Roman Bilinski	Liam Sceats	Roman Bilinski	M2 Competition
3	R1	Hampton Downs Motorsport Park	Gerrard Xie	Liam Sceats	Roman Bilinski	M2 Competition
	R2			Roman Bilinski	Nicola Lacorte	M2 Competition
	R3		Roman Bilinski	Roman Bilinski	Kaleb Ngatoa	Giles Motorsport
4	R1	Euromarque Motorsport Park	Roman Bilinski	Bryce Aron	Roman Bilinski	M2 Competition
	R2			Michael Shin	Michael Shin	M2 Competition
	R3		Roman Bilinski	Roman Bilinski	Liam Sceats	M2 Competition
5	R1	Highlands Motorsport Park	Liam Sceats	Liam Sceats	Liam Sceats	M2 Competition
	R2			Roman Bilinski	Bryce Aron	M2 Competition
	R3		Liam Sceats	Roman Bilinski	Liam Sceats	M2 Competition

The 2024 Formula Regional Oceania Championship began at a wet Taupo with Giles's Christian Mansell taking pole position for the first race.^[30] His advantage was short-lived, however, as M2's Roman Bilinski grabbed the lead at the start. He continued to lead Mansell all 18 laps, throughout a safety car phase. His teammate Michael Shin completed the podium.^[31] Giles's Alex Crosbie headed the field for the reversed-grid second race. Two caution periods disrupted proceedings, allowing M2's Gerrard Xie to rise up to second and then grab the lead at the final restart to win. Crosbie dropped to third, behind Bilinski.^[32] Mansell had qualified on pole position for the third race,^[33] but a penalty saw him start fifth. Nevertheless, he was back in second by the end of the first lap and took the lead on lap four. Bilinski took second shortly after and began closing up on Mansell. The Pole took the lead on lap 19 and went on to take the win. Mansell and M2's Liam Sceats were on the podium and left Taupo equal on points, 25 behind Bilinski.^[34]

Bilinski continued his form by taking pole position for the first race at Manfeild.^[35] He led Mansell throughout most of the first race, before the Australian dropped to tenth because of an electrical issue. This allowed Bilinski to take a trouble-free win ahead of Lacorte and Sceats.^[36] The second race was held in wet conditions and saw Bilinski forced to pit to repair his rain light, thereby removing him from contention. Xie spun from second place, while Mansell and his teammate Kaleb Ngatoa both got past Kiwi's polesitter Patrick Woods-Toth. The pair battled for the race lead with Mansell eventually coming out on top, while mtec's Tommy Smith completed the podium.^[37] Another pole position for Bilinski put him in prime position for race three.^[38] Wet conditions first saw a red flag for a crash between Lacorte and Shin, before multiple drivers spun and race control elected to stop the race early. Bilinski won ahead of Mansell and Sceats, now with a slightly reduced lead of 22 points ahead of newly crowned Tasman Cup winner Mansell.^[39]

Round three at Hampton Downs began with Xie taking pole position and Bilinski only managing 14th place.^[40] He turned his frustration into a momentous first race: in changing conditions, he climbed eight places on the first lap into sixth, forced his way past Xie and Sceats into third and set out after Ngatoa and mtec's Kaden Probst. The pair had started on wet tires, but the track was now dry enough that Bilinski could easily take the lead and the win ahead of Sceats and Woods-Toth.^[41] Race two began with Lacorte overtaking Shin into turn one, with the Italian, then controlling the race out in front to win ahead of the Korean with Bilinski in third.^[42] Now the Pole had also regained his one-lap pace and took pole position for race three.^[43] Xie was to start alongside him, but a heavy crash in race two saw him withdraw. This allowed Ngatoa into second and he used that to overtake Bilinski and leading him home. Shin came third, as Sceats overtook the absent Mansell for second in the standings, now 50 points behind Bilinski.^[44]

The series' return to Ruapuna saw Bilinski claim another pole position ahead of Sceats.^[45] The first race opened with a lengthy stoppage after heavy contact between Probst and Kiwi's Titus Sherlock. Bilinsiki controlled the restart and resisted Sceats's pressure all race long. Behind them, mtec's returnee Jacob Abel held on to third in a three-car battle with Ngatoa and Giles's Alex Crosbie.^[46] Race two saw front-row starters Shin and Woods-Toth making slight contact side-by-side into turn one. This saw Woods-Toth drop to third behind Xie. Shin then pulled away to win, while Xie did all he could to keep Woods-Toth behind him.^[47] Bilinski was on pole position again for the third race, again heading Sceats,^[48] but this time, the Kiwi got the better of the Pole into the first turn to take the lead. Again the leader had to resist pressure from behind, but like Bilinski the day before, Sceats did not put a foot wrong to claim his maiden win. Still, Bilinski had grown his lead to 56 points, with 90 still on offer heading into the final weekend.^[49]

Qualifying for the New Zealand Grand Prix at Highlands began with a shock for Bilinski as he crashed, putting him 13th on the grid for the Grand Prix, while Sceats took two pole positions.^[50] The first race saw a controlled lights-to-flag victory by Sceats to keep the championship alive going into the final day of the season. Bilinski started fourth and got into second, but could not find a way past mtec's Callum Hedge.^[51] M2's Bryce Aron started the second race from pole position, while Bilinski was in fifth. He needed to outscore Sceats to take the title, but did more than that, rising to second and briefly contending for victory before dropping back into third behind Woods-Toth. He thereby took the championship title, while Woods-Toth claimed the Rookie win.^[52] Sceats's only consolation for the loss of the championship title came in him winning the Grand Prix, resisting Hedge for 27 laps before claiming the victory, with Shin also on the podium. Bilinski's season ended in a wild crash, going over the top of Aron's car in the final turn.^[53]

Bilinski came to New Zealand with a single Formula Regional podium in his previous career, but was a championship contender right off the bat. While most of his six wins came from front-row starts, a defining moment of his championship was his win from fourteenth on the grid at Hampton Downs. Bilinski called his championship "massively" important for his career, calling himself "absolutely over the moon". Sceats was runner-up in a Formula Regional Championship for the second time in a year after his 2023 Formula Regional Japan campaign, but found comfort in winning the Grand Prix. After the race, his words to the media talking about his win were: "I’m speechless. I can’t even think right now. I can’t believe it." The championship's second year post-COVID saw it further reestablish itself as a competitive winter series, while also continuing to build upon its unique selling points with the addition of features like a fossil-free fuel.^[54]

No points were awarded for pole position or fastest lap.

Race (starting grid from qualifying)

Reversed grid race

Pos. Driver TAU MAN HMP RUA HIG Points R1 R2 R3 R1 R2 R3 R1 R2 R3 R1 R2 R3 R1 R2 R3 1 Roman Bilinski 1 2 1 1 17 1 1 3 2 1 4 2 3 3 5 385 2 Liam Sceats 5 4 3 3 6 3 2 6 5 2 8 1 1 9 1 341 3 Patrick Woods-Toth 16 5 9 8 4 6 3 4 6 7 3 3 6 2 9 255 4 Michael Shin 3 7 5 17 12 Ret 6 2 3 8 1 7 4 7 3 245 5 Alex Crosbie 8 3 4 9 7 7 12 10 8 5 6 8 13 12 7 206 6 Kaleb Ngatoa 4 14 7 4 2 5 16 7 1 4 5 10 WD WD WD 205 7 Gerrard Xie 6 1 11 7 10 15 4 5 WD 6 2 6 8 6 16 205 8 Tommy Smith 7 6 12 6 3 4 5 9 7 144 9 Christian Mansell 2 Ret 2 5 1 2 135 10 Nicola Lacorte Ret 11 6 2 5 Ret 7 1 4 130 11 Elliott Cleary 10 8 10 14 9 10 8 8 11 9 10 10 124 12 Jett Bowling 12 12 15 11 13 9 13 14 15 10 9 9 11 11 11 120 13 Jacob Abel 3 7 5 5 4 4 118 14 Titus Sherlock 11 Ret 8 13 8 8 11 13 9 Ret 12 11 17 14 Ret 105 15 Bryce Aron 9 10 4 7 1 6 102 16 Landan Matriano Lim 15 9 17 15 11 12 10 15 13 11 13 13 15 15 13 94 17 Lucas Fecury 9 NC 16 10 16 13 9 12 12 12 14 Ret 14 17 14 91 18 Callum Hedge 2 5 2 74 19 Jake Bonilla 14 10 14 16 15 14 14 16 14 13 15 14 16 16 15 74 20 Kaden Probst 13 13 13 12 14 11 15 11 10 Ret WD WD 63 21 Sebastian Manson DNS 11 12 10 8 12 43 22 Ryder Quinn 12 13 8 28 Pos. Driver R1 R2 R3 R1 R2 R3 R1 R2 R3 R1 R2 R3 R1 R2 R3 Points TAU MAN HMP RUA HIG

Colour Result Gold Winner Silver Second place Bronze Third place Green Points finish Blue Non-points finish Non-classified finish (NC) Purple Retired (Ret) Red Did not qualify (DNQ) Did not pre-qualify (DNPQ) Black Disqualified (DSQ) White Did not start (DNS) Withdrew (WD) Race cancelled (C) Blank Did not practice (DNP) Did not arrive (DNA) Excluded (EX) Bold – Pole Italics – Fastest Lap † — Did not finish, but classified Rookie

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