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Sixteen-year-old tops Taupo practice

By Thomas Miles

At the tender age of 16, Nikita Johnson made a statement on the opening day of practice of the Castrol Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Championship at Taupo.

Johnson was rapid and turned heads by posting a 01:22.968.

This was just enough to edge out Arvid Lindblad with just 0.031s the difference between the top two, where were the only ones to record 1m22s times.

They were the first drivers to go so fast in a Toyota FT60 at Taupo.

Korean Michael Shin managed to keep Supercars champion Will Brown outside the top three.

However, Brown did enough to retain fourth, having also held that position on Thursday testing.

Australian GB3 driver Patrick Heuzenroeder rounded out the top five, being half a second adrift.

The other Australian in the field is Nicolas Stati, who was 14th, 1.4s away.

Things get serious with qualifying at 10.17 local time and the race 13.49 local time before the final two races on Sunday.

The Castrol Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Championship is just one part of the wider Historic Taupo meeting this weekend.

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