With the top eight reversed from Race 1, Wharton started the second 18-lap encounter on the second row.

He made good first-lap progress to slot into second behind early leader Kanato Le and it quickly became apparent that Wharton was the quicker of the pair.

Le did his best to resist Wharton’s charge, however on Lap 7 the Aussie was able to use his push-to-pass down the back straight to breeze into a lead he would hold until the finish.

His final winning margin was 3.5s over Ernesto Rivera, marking a first win for both Wharton and the TJ Speed with HMD squad.

“This feels good,” said Wharton. “It’s been a hard couple of weeks.

“To finally get the win, [it’s] where we should be I think – we have a good car and a good driver. But when it’s a new team it’s hard to compete with the people that have been here for years.

“We’re doing a good job. We’ll focus tomorrow on the last race and hopefully have a good quali tomorrow morning.”

Runaway series leader Ugo Ugochuwku put in a remarkable drive from seventh on the grid, patiently working his way through the field to third place.

He was even able to put immense pressure on Rivera in the closing laps, although ultimately had to settle for third.

Ryan Wood scores first open-wheeler win

Fourth place went to Louis Sharp while Race 1 winner Ryan Wood was another big winner, making his way up to fifth.

Freddie Slater finished sixth on the road but was slapped with a five-second penalty for running Zack Scoular off the road on Lap 1, which dropped him to eighth in the final results.

That promoted Yuanpu Chi up to sixth ahead of Le, who plummeted down the order as the race wore on.

Ricardo Baptista and Kalle Rovanpera rounded out the top 10, that being the WRC champ’s best CTFROC race result to date.

The CTFROT action continues at Taupo tomorrow with qualifying and two more races, including the Denny Hulme Memorial Trophy.

2026 Castrol Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Trophy – R2 Taupo Race 2