RACE RAP: Monday, February 10

Supercars champion Will Brown is now also a grand prix winner. He did the job at Highlands Park when he claimed the New Zealand title for 2025.

Brown was already a single-seater winner but made a smart campaign across the Tasman, racing to podium results in the opening two legs of the Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Championship.

He was bumped off pole position at Highlands by his Triple Eight team mate, Broc Feeney, but led from the start and won by nearly a second from another speedy young Kiwi, Zack Scoular. Feeney got into early trouble and was only sixth at the end of his first open-wheeler race.

Brown's win in the NZ title was the first since Warwick Brown lifted the trophy in 1975, when Formula 5000 was the category of choice for the Tasman Series.

His success also mirrors the victory by Shane van Gisbergen, his predecessor and Supercars champion at Triple Eight.

Striking the colours: The build-up to the Repco Supercars Championship for 2025 is well underway, with teams showing their new colours and drivers all talking up their chances.

The Bulls pulled the wraps off at Highlands Park during the build-up to the New Zealand Grand Prix, which featured both of the team's drivers at a track owned by one of Triple Eight's bosses, Tony Quinn.

Finally, there is a new and crisp look to the DJR Mustangs.

The team's livery unveiling on the Gold Coast also included confirmation that last year's Bathurst co-drivers – veteran Tony D'Alberto for Will Davison and Todd Hazelwood for Brodie Kostecki – will take their seats again in 2025.

Erebus Racing is headed for another season with rotating sponsors but Chiko, which scored on the Bathurst winning Camaro last year, is a definite headliner.

MotoGP looks close: The big pre-season test in Malaysia showed MotoGP is set for another super-close contest. Ducati came good at the right time, as privateer Alex Marquez topped the times, from factory rider Francesco Bagnaia by just 0.007 seconds. Fabio Quartararo again showed that Yamaha has a lightning fast contender for season 2025, although Aussie Jack Miller was only 12th on the time sheets.

Wayne Bell is gone: Wayne Bell was the fastest and most talented driver to never win an Australian Rally Championship.

Now he is dead, aged 73, and leaves behind golden memories and a countless number of fans and friends.

The humble Newcastle boy had a giant smile and proved his early pace as a Holden factory driver in the baby Gemini, then running a long string of privateer cars before bringing Hyundai into rallying in Australia with Dave Cameron and eventually taking the South Korean carmaker into the World Rally Championship for the first time.

Special in Adelaide: The list of famous cars and legendary drivers at the 2025 Repco Adelaide Motorsport Festival on March 8-9 continues to grow.

Latest on the list is Le Mans 24-Hour winner and grand prix driver, Stefan Johansson, who will drive the raucous Mazda 767B sports car.

Johansson won Le Mans, but did the job in a Joest Porsche in 1997, and also competed for McLaren and Ferrari in F1 as he scored 12 podiums from 97 starts between 1980 and 1991.

Toyota boss has play time: He might be the team chief for Toyota in the World Rally Championship, but Jari-Matti Latvala cannot give up the wheel. He began his season in the Arctic Rally in his personal Toyota Celica ST-185 to prepare for a full-on assault on the European Historic Rally Championship. He is so committed to the campaign he will even miss a couple of WRC events in 2025.