In effort to keep fresh in the off-season, F3 Americas Championship rookie Parker Locke of San Antonio confirmed he will travel abroad to compete in the New Zealand TRS championship under reigning F4 U.S. team champion Kiwi Motorsport (Crosslink/Kiwi Motorsport). Last season, Kiwi Motorsport ran Formula 4 United States Championship Powered by Honda alumni Brendon Leitch and inaugural champion Cameron Das in the five-week championship.
The New Zealand campaign will be Locke's first time racing outside of the United States, but he is confident that the visit will make a significant contribution to his off-season preparation and ultimately his single-seater career aspirations.
"My goal is to learn better race craft and improve over the five weekends," Locke explained. "I started in racing at a very late age so my race craft is not up to the level of others just yet. I have shown that I have the speed but my race craft needs to improve. That’s what the trip to New Zealand is all about. It's going to be an exciting trip with lots to learn and plenty of track time with a great team."
Locke began racing in karts at his local track in New Braunfels in 2015 at 14, stepping into cars for the first time in 2017 in the Lucas Oil Formula Race Car Series before making the move to full wings and slicks specification cars in F4 U.S. He undertook the complete season before combining further F4 events with three F3 Americas racing weekends in 2018, where he secured three podium finishes and two Sabelt Hard Charger Awards.
TRS is a spec-series, running over five weekends from January, with two races on New Zealand's South Island and three more on the North Island, concluding with the New Zealand Grand Prix meeting at Manfeild Circuit Chris Amon in February, one of only two races outside of F1 officially recognised by the FIA as a Grand Prix.
