Crosbie’s CTFROC campaign concludes

Invercargill driver Alex Crosbie ended his campaign in the 2025 Castrol Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Championship (CTFROC) with a tenth place in the 69th New Zealand Grand Prix at Highlands Motorsport Park in Cromwell at the weekend.

It brought down the curtain on what many regard as the most talented field ever assembled for the series.

The final round at the 4.01kilometre Highlands layout started well on Thursday when Crosbie recorded the fastest lap of the day across the two test sessions in his Castrol Toyota FT-60.

“I had pace on the others and hoped to improve in Friday’s practice sessions but the pace plateaued,” said Alex as he recorded times good enough for sixth, eleventh and twelfth throughout the day’s three sessions.

Qualifying on Saturday was held in three parts and with the fifteenth fastest time in the first part Crosbie did not proceed further, meaning he would start from fifteenth in both the opening race on Saturday afternoon and also in the New Zealand Grand Prix on Sunday. Race 2 grid positions would be decided on race one results with the top eight starting in reverse order. The session left Crosbie perplexed, “the car was good and I felt fast, it just did not translate to a better time. I was pretty disappointed as I would have liked to have been in that top eight for the Grand Prix.”

In Saturday’s opening race Crosbie lost two places off the start and banged wheels with American Barrett Wolfe before ending the lap sixteenth. He regained a spot at the mid-point at the race but copped a ten second penalty soon after for exceeding track limits which dropped him back to sixteenth at the end of the race.

After the previous day’s penalty Crosbie started sixteenth in Sunday’s first race. He made a good start but a big crash early in the race saw Alex take to the grass to avoid the carnage. Several cars were out on the spot and the safety car was deployed for several laps. At the restart Crosbie was behind Wolfe and Australian Supercar star Broc Feeney. He got by Feeney into turn nine and battled with Wolfe all the way to the flag, drawing alongside at one point but ultimately finished tenth behind him.

The New Zealand Grand Prix, the country’s most prestigious motor race, was the series finale and Crosbie was fifteenth on the grid. He chased Enzo Yeh of Chinese Taipei initially until Yeh left the track. He then tailed Nicholas Monteiro of Brazil and Nicolas Stati of Australia until Stati made a move on Monteiro at turn 12. In doing so he gave Monteiro a nudge and Crosbie passed both. He then showed he had the speed to catch the next pack further up the road, clawing back nearly ten seconds to be less than one second behind fellow kiwi Sebastian Manson at the flag. “I needed one more lap to try and make a move,” said Alex.

As the series ended Alex was grateful to Giles Motorsport, his engineer and mechanics and for Castrol’s support in sponsoring him and allowing him to run the green and red colours.

He also appreciated the support for his campaign in the 2025 Castrol Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Championship which also came from Stresscrete Southland, the Peter H McMillan Legacy Fund, Kiwi Skips, Invercargill Hose and Hydraulics, Kiwi Driver Fund and Golden Homes in the Southern Lakes.