Brown upstages rivals to win New Zealand Grand Prix

Will Brown has upstaged his rivals to claim victory in the New Zealand Grand Prix, with the Supercars champion controlling the 27-lap affair at Highlands Motorsport Park.

The Triple Eight Race Engineering driver dominated the Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Championship finale at Highlands to beat local hope Zack Scoular.

Brown became the first Australian since Warwick Brown in 1975 to win the Grand Prix, taking the lead from the start and leading away as Supercars teammate Broc Feeney slipped from pole to sixth.

The 26-year-old became the eighth Australian to win the race, after namesake Brown, Stan Jones, Sir Jack Brabham, Frank Matich, Niel Allen, Frank Gardner and John McCormack.

The Queenslander also became just the second active Supercars driver to win the Grand Prix, following Shane van Gisbergen's epic charge from pit lane to victory at Hampton Downs in 2021.

“It was running through my head for about the last three hours, how to get a good start here and if I could beat Broc off the line,” Brown said after the race.

"And then I thought I could manage the race from there. I had a big moment on lap 1 going through Turn 10 over the bridge and got a bad sportsmanship flag, so I couldn't cut there anymore.

"Zack was super fast. He was always there, I didn't want to make a mistake, but it was a cool race. I was able to manage a really good lead in that first lap. I was able to build a second or two there, and I was hoping it stayed that way."

Brown got the holeshot off the line and motored past Feeney, who dropped to third behind Scoular.

Feeney's day got tougher when American Shawn Rashid rounded him up through the final corner, with the 22-year-old fighting to keep pace as his tyres came up to pressure.

Brown bolted to a 1.9s lead over Scoular to lap 3, when a Safety Car was deployed following a collision between Enzo Yeh and James Lawley.

Eight laps after the lap 6 restart, Scouler was still within 0.5s of Brown, as Feeney pounced on Rashid for third. However, just corners, later, Feeney bowled a wide and let Rashid, Arvid Lindlad and Michael Shin through.

Brown kept Scoular at bay and opened up a 0.8s lead by lap 17, as Lindblad cleared Rashid. By lap 19, the margin had breached one second, with Scoular unable to mount a genuine challenge.

Scoular fell to 1.7s adrift with two laps remaining despite an error by Brown, who was unchallenged and secured victory by the official margin of 0.963s.

Brown and Feeney will commence their Supercars campaigns at the pre-season test day at Sydney Motorsport Park on February 19, and Thrifty Sydney 500 - Opening Round on February 21-23.

Tickets for the test day and Sydney 500 - Opening Round are available now.