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The Red Bull Ampol Racing driver has confirmed he will contest part of the Castrol Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Championship in New Zealand.
Brown has settled on a three-round program with Giles Motorsport at the Tony Quinn-owned facilities: Taupo, Hampton Downs, and Highlands.
It means he’ll also contest the New Zealand Grand Prix, which marks the final round of the five-round calendar.
Brown is to become the first active Supercars driver since Shane van Gisbergen to race in the open-wheelers.
Van Gisbergen made a cameo in the 2021 New Zealand Grand Prix at Hampton Downs, winning after he started from pit lane.
For Brown, it marks the first competitive single-seater program since his S5000 cameo more than five years ago.
“Single seaters are a bit of an itch I want to scratch and there’s no better place to do it than in
this championship,” said Brown.
“I was watching Formula 2 and Formula 3 races earlier this year and thought it would be great to race in a competitive field of single-seaters once again.
“Hopefully I’ll be able to get some testing in a single seater at some stage, but I know Taupo
well from Supercars.
“I’ve done some laps at Hampton Downs in a Toyota 86 and I’ve done a few laps at Highlands as well, so the tracks will not be new to me.”
Brown has a link to the New Zealand racing scene by way of Triple Eight Race Engineering co-owner Tony Quinn, whose National Racing Group Promotions Limited is behind the NextGen NZ Championship.
“When Tony’s organisation took over the promotion of the major New Zealand championships,
the desire to have another go started to look like a much more realistic possibility,” said Brown.
“I’m delighted to be part of those three weekends and am looking forward to some excellent racing.”
Despite having never driven the FT60, Brown has high aspirations.
“I’m not coming to take part, I’m coming to New Zealand to win. It’s no different to why I have wanted to try NASCAR and TCR,” said Brown.
“As a racing driver, I want to test myself against the best and I know this championship has a fantastic record of helping produce some world-class drivers.”
Formula Regional Oceania (formerly the Toyota Racing Series) has produced a slew of F1 talents and even Supercars drivers.
Matt Payne and Thomas Randle both won the series.
Liam Lawson, Lando Norris, Yuki Tsunoda, Franco Colapinto, Lance Stroll, and Guanyu Zhou are among this year’s crop of F1 talents to have previously raced in the series.
The Formula Regional Oceania Championship begins on January 10-12 at Taupo before moving to Hampton Downs on January 17-19. Manfeild hosts the mid-way point on January 24-26.
Teretonga marks the penultimate round of the season on January 31-February 2 before the finale at Highlands on February 7-9 for the New Zealand Grand Prix.
The three-round program also paves the way for Brown to compete in the Bathurst 12 Hour, given he will miss the Teretonga round.
