Ryan Wood wins Denny Hulme Memorial Trophy

It was effectively a lights-to-flag win for the Supercars star who bolted into the lead from the outside of the front row, at the expense of surprise pole winner Jack Taylor.

Once in front there was no looking back for Wood who comfortably led all 23 laps.

The only risk to his lead was a mid-race safety car, called after Ernesto Rivero and Zack Scoular clashed at the hairpin.

But a well-judged restart meant Wood retained the lead, ultimately coming home ##s ahead of Kanato Le and Louis Sharp.

“Honestly it means the world,” said Wood. “When I was little I won the Denny Hulme certificate, I still have it, we were looking at it the other day. So to win that today is really special.

“I’m really humbled to be in this position and I can’t thank the guys and girls at MTEC enough.

“It’s really cool to share [the podium] with Louis, he’s driving his butt off. It’a really cool to see him up there today as well.

“We’re going to enjoy this one but full focus is on Teretonga and Highlands. I feel like we’re building.”

The key to Sharp’s podium was a forceful first-lap move on Taylor, who proved tricky to pass later in the race.

The young Aussie, who stunned the field to grab pole in the wet morning conditions, held onto to fourth for much of the race before coming under fire from series leader Ugo Ugochukwu.

The American was on an impressive recovery drive from 11th on the grid, but found stiff competition in Taylor as he tried to get through.

He was momentarily shuffled back to sixth after going wheel-to-wheel with Taylor, before working his way back to Taylor and finally getting through on the penultimate lap.

Jin Nakamura also managed to get past Taylor for fifth place.

Yevan David came home seventh ahead of Yuanpu Cui, Rivera, and Nolan Allaer.

Scoular was a DNF, marking a disappointing end to a day that started with a dominant victory in Race 3.

In that race the Kiwi came home more than eight seconds ahead of Freddie Slater and Wood.

Ugochukwu suffered his worst result of the series so far with 13th in that race, making his recovery in the feature all the more important.

He still holds a handy series lead on 192 points ahead of Sharp and Le (both 159 points), Nakamura (151 points) and Wood (150 points).

The penultimate round of CTFROT takes place at Teretonga Raceway next weekend.

2026 Castrol Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Trophy – R2 Taupo Denny Hulme Memorial Trophy