20th anniversary season locked in for NZ’s premier single seater championship

TOYOTA GAZOO Racing New Zealand has revealed the dates for its landmark 20th anniversary single seater championship season.

The 2025 Castrol Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Championship will race on five different circuits over five consecutive weekends beginning in January 2025.

Making its debut as the Toyota Racing Series in 2004, the championship has been a regular fixture on the international motorsport calendar, missing only one season in 2022 due to Covid 19 travel restrictions.

The 2025 season will be its third as one of the FIA’s Formula Regional Championships and it is the only one of those to boast a fully FIA-sanctioned Grand Prix event.

A grid capped at 20 cars will line up for the opening weekend of the season in New Zealand’s North Island at Taupo International Motorsport Park, in support of the Historic Grand Prix Event on January 10-12. The second round will be held the following weekend on the full Hampton Downs International Motorsport Park layout.

The third round around the challenging and cambered turns of Manfeild – Circuit Chris Amon takes place on 24-26 January before the drivers and teams head to the South Island for a return to the most southerly of the championship venues, Teretonga Raceway at Invercargill over the January 31 – February 2 weekend.

The unique challenges of Highlands International Motorsport Park – and the 69th New Zealand Grand Prix – bring the 20th anniversary championship to a conclusion on February 7-9.

New Zealand’s premier motorsport championship has long been a proving ground for the best rising talent in motorsport and over the past 20 years has seen no fewer than 24 of its graduates test, practice or race in an official F1 Grand Prix weekend or test session. The most recent – the 2020 Rookie Champion, Franco Colapinto – enjoyed a solid Grand Prix debut with 12th place for Williams in the Italian Grand Prix at Monza over last weekend.

Countless others have achieved success in other formulae, ranging from Supercars to Indycar and Le Mans prototypes to Formula E. Last weekend 2024 Rookie Champion, Patrick Woods-Toth won the Formula Regional Americas title, while 2023 Race winner Louis Foster won the Indy Nxt Championship.

TGRNZ Motorsport Manager Nicolas Caillol says the 2025 season will be no different. “The calendar dates of the championship traditionally give the champions of tomorrow a great opportunity to gain significant mileage and sharpen their skills ahead of northern hemisphere campaigns,” he explained.

“The TRS and CTFROC series have therefore always appealed to those who want to succeed at the highest levels of motorsport. That’s recognised by the FIA too, who have over time increased the allocation of Super Licence points. As one of only five Formula Regional championships in the world, drivers considering the 20th anniversary championship can expect exceptionally high quality once again.”