Liam Sceats wins the 2024 New Zealand Grand Prix at Highlands Motorsport Park in Cromwell Photo: PHOTOSPORT
Teenager Liam Sceats is the latest in an ever growing list of New Zealand drivers making their name on the world stage.
The 18 year old is in the United States hoping to break into one of the feeder competitions into IndyCars.
Sceats won the New Zealand Grand Prix this summer and finished second overall in the Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Championship.
He credits the New Zealand series for putting him on his latest path.
"It attracts top international drivers from all over the world and it's a valuable stepping stone not just for Kiwi drivers but all the other drivers from around the world allowing them to compete during their winter," Sceats told RNZ.
Winners of the Regional Oceania Championship over the years include Mitch Evans, Nick Cassidy, Lance Stroll, Lando Norris and Liam Lawson.
Liam Sceats wins the 2024 New Zealand Grand Prix at Highlands Motorsport Park in Cromwell Photo: PHOTOSPORT
"Most New Zealand drivers that are doing great things overseas have all gone through this championship and so it's played a massive part in kick starting their careers.
"It was crucial and valuable in the stepping stone for my career."
Sceats is now in New Orleans testing for the Australian TJ Speed Motorsports team and if he can secure the sponsorship he needs is hoping to compete full-time in the USF pro 2000 series, which is the third level of open wheel racing in the United States below IndyCars and Indy NXT.
"I'd love to compete in IndyCar, that's the focus now and I'd love to climb through the ranks into Indy NXT and then eventually to be in IndyCar one day."
Sceats started karting at the Mt Wellington Club when he was six and did that here and in Australia for ten years.
He then moved into Formula Ford in 2020 and then in 2023 went into the Formula Regional Championship in both New Zealand and Japan.
If successful in his journey to IndyCars he'll join fellow New Zealanders Scott Dixon (six-time champion), Scott McLaughlin and Marcus Armstrong in the championship.
Sceats said Formula One was never the main goal when he was younger, he just wanted to be a professional driver and it was his father Simon (who was a national production car champion) that he looked up to.
He has spoken to the likes of Nick Cassidy and Liam Lawson in recent times who have offered a few words of advise.
Lawson will of course be on track as a Red Bull reserve driver when the F1 season gets underway in Bahrain this weekend.
However it's the F2 and F3 races that he's most interested in as they'll contain many of the drivers Sceats has faced himself in New Zealand including Australian Christian Mansell, Austrian Charlie Wurz and Dutchman Laurens van Hoepen.
"I'll be following them more closely because I have an existing relationship with them and it'll be cool to see them go well."
"Motorsport is a tough game, it's cut throat but it's always been that way and you have to perform in order for opportunities to come your way."
Sceats will hopefully be racing in the support events to the opening IndyCar round in Florida on 10 March.
Liam Sceats wins the 2024 New Zealand Grand Prix at Highlands Motorsport Park in Cromwell Photo: PHOTOSPORT
