Ugochukwu wins and NZ motorsport makes giant leap towards sustainability

As young gun Ugo Ugochukwu raced away to two wins and the championship lead over the weekend in the first round of the Castrol Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Trophy, he probably didn’t have the fuel in his car at the forefront of his mind.

But the weekend was a significant moment for Toyota, for New Zealand Motorsport and for sustainable motorsport.

The Castrol Toyota FR Oceania Trophy recently applied to the New Zealand Environmental Protection Authority to use a sustainable fuel. And as a result of approval to run the fuel, the cars competing in the Trophy instantly became amongst the most sustainably powered racers in the world today.

Testing of the FU3L sustainable fuel product proved problem free during testing in the build-up to the start of the championship.

There was also plenty of interest in the first round, which was watched worldwide via livestream by more than 120,000. This was thanks to international interest in drivers like American Ugochukwu, Supercars ace Ryan Wood, Brit Freddie Slater and two time world rally champion Kalle Rovanperä from Finland.

And there was even more pressure for the sustainable fuel to perform seamlessly on race weekend, not only to power 19 of the sport’s best drivers and hottest young single seater prospects but also with the addition of a new ‘push to pass’ system in the cars deploying another 25bhp for ten seconds up to six times in a race.

Despite the intensity of the racing, and the new technology on board, the Toyota engines in the FT60 chassis never missed a beat across the 19 cars running. And each travelled around 700km over the course of the racing weekend. It was a major box ticked for sustainable motorsport.

“The new FU3L sustainable fuel performed way beyond our expectations in what is always a challenging environment but a little more so this year with the different engine characteristics associated with the push to pass addition,” explained TOYOTA GAZOO Racing New Zealand Motorsport Manager Nicolas Caillol.

“The change to the fuel has been seamless.”