Brown to return to open wheelers
Will Brown will prepare for his Supercars title defence by racing single seaters in New Zealand this summer.
Brown is a big name signing for the Castrol Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Championship where he will drive a Red Bull backed Toyota FT60 in three of the seven rounds.
The current Triple Eight champion will drive at the Historic GP in Taupo on January 10-12 before returning a week later at Hampton Downs.
His third and final meeting will be the 69th New Zealand Grand Prix at Highlands on February 7-9.
Whilst Brown has made his name in touring cars, having just been crowned the latest Supercars champion, he also has single-seater experience.
The versatile racer last raced an open wheeler in 2019 when he made six S5000 starts and took one podium.
He also finished second in the 2016 Formula Ford Australia season with nine wins from 15 starts and was crowned Australian Formula 4 champion in that same year with six wins and 13 podiums from 18 starts.
Having initially turned to single seaters out of karting, Brown is looking forward to jumping back in time.
“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,” he said.
“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 admitted he has been eyeing the Castrol Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Championship for the last seven years, but it has only finally come to fruition.
“When Tony’s [Quinn’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,” he said.
“I’m delighted to be part of those three weekends and am looking forward to some excellent racing.
“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.
“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.”
Brown will be hoping to follow in the footsteps of the man he replaced at Triple Eight, Shane van Gisbergen, who won the New Zealand Grand Prix in 2021.
Image: Mark Horsburgh
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