Ugo Ugochukwu dominates in New Zealand.

      Last autumn it emerged that American driver Ugo Ugochukwu had been dropped from McLaren’s junior programme. That did not stop the 18‑year‑old New York native from signing with Campos Racing and moving up to Formula 3, and he also performed well in the autumn tests in that junior series.

      Now Ugo has started the season very confidently in the New Zealand Formula Regional Oceania: yesterday he took pole for the first race of the weekend and finished second, then came home in the top five in the second Saturday race.

      On Sunday he first won qualifying at the New Zealand Hampton Downs circuit, after which he claimed victories in two consecutive races and leads the drivers’ standings of the winter series by 18 points.

      By contrast, Kalle Rovanperä, the two‑time World Rally Champion who made a decent single‑seater debut yesterday, was unlucky today. He finished the first Sunday race in 14th place, started the second from ninth, but retired following a crash that occurred on the opening lap.

      It appears that almost immediately after the start one of the rivals forced Kalle off the track, and the Finn’s Red Bull‑liveried car went off onto the runoff and into the barrier. Fortunately neither he nor the driver who caused the collision were injured — that was local driver Sebastian Manson, Ugo Ugochukwu’s teammate at M2 Competition.

      In fact Manson caused a pile‑up on the track in that incident, with two other competitors becoming innocent victims; the race was immediately stopped with red flags.

      In the photo accompanying this text, Ugo Ugochukwu is breaking through in car No. 4, and far in the background you can see Rovanperä flying off the track in a cloud of dust. After the restart the race continued, and in the end the winner was joined on the podium by two Japanese drivers — Jin Nakamura and Kanato Le.

      The next round of the series will take place in a week at the Taupō circuit, and it will also consist of two qualifying sessions and four races.