Top 10 finish for Alex Crosbie at NZ Grand Prix

Invercargill racing driver Alex Crosbie concluded his campaign in the 2024 Castrol Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Championship with a seventh place in his first ever New Zealand Grand Prix at Highlands Motorsport Park in Cromwell on Sunday.

His results meant he finished the championship, which attracts drivers from all around the world, fifth overall and second in the Rookie Championship.

The seventeen-year-old Southlander had qualified an impressive fifth for the race after an incident packed, three-part, qualifying session on Saturday. The first segment saw drivers establish their grid spots for Saturday afternoon’s race with the bottom five eliminated from the next sessions that would determine qualifying for the Grand Prix. Two red flags interrupted the first segment and Alex only got one or two laps but it was good enough for the ninth fastest time. He was promoted to eighth after team mate Kaleb Ngatoa crashed, ending his weekend. “I was stressing I was going to miss putting down a lap,” said Alex of the red flags.

Caption: Alex Crosbie during Round 5 of the Castrol Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Championship at Highlands Motorsport Park in Cromwell at the weekend. Photo: Tayler Burke

Crosbie went into the second part of qualifying on old tyres and set the eighth fastest time which put him into the final segment to establish the top eight starters for the Grand Prix. Armed with new tyres he laid down a time good enough for fifth on the grid, the times in the session really close, with Alex just .323 of a second off pole.

Prior to the Grand Prix Alex had two races, and in the first on Saturday afternoon from eighth on the grid he got into seventh before the second corner. Later on the lap he was passed by one car before being put wide by another car on the inside. “I didn’t back off enough and went over the kerb and the car leapt in the air. It was a heavy landing. I got winded and got a shock in the back and lost a few positions but gained two spots back before the end of the race to end up thirteenth.”

The impact of the landing meant Crosbie’s team worked through the night to put a new tub in the car. The tub is basically the core of a race car. In the Sunday morning race Alex started thirteenth and gained one spot to finish twelfth.

The Grand Prix wrapped up the series and from fifth place Alex moved up to fourth only for him and the car in front to be caught out by some stones on the track at turn four, sending both wide. From then on Alex held seventh for much of the rest of the race staving off challenges, firstly from Canadian Patrick Woods-Toth and then Australian Ryder Quinn.

Crosbie secured some good results and experience from some good racing over the five weekends of the series and admits he “learnt heaps.” “It was very different and a fun environment.”

Support for Alex Crosbie’s campaign in the Castrol Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Championship came from Stresscrete Southland Limited, the Peter H McMillan Legacy Fund, Golden Homes in the Southern Lakes, Rodin Cars, Kiwi Driver Fund, Alex Crosbie’s grandparents, MotorSport New Zealand, Hamilton Brothers Building, Blacks Fasteners Limited, Invercargill Oil Shop and  Invercargill Hose & Hydraulics.