Rookie Wood rises to the top

For the first time in his Supercars career, Ryan Wood is in P1 after claiming a tight Sydney SuperNight practice.

After a mammoth 90 minute session under ever-changing conditions as the sun disappeared and the track cooled, a late lap pushed Wood to the top.

His 1:30.5842 was just enough to sneak ahead of Nick Percat and Chaz Mostert, who were both less than a tenth away.

Will Brown was fourth, while Matt Stone Racing joined Walkinshaw Andretti United in having two cars in the top five with Cameron Hill taking fifth.

It may only be practice, but being the fastest is a massive moment in Wood’s career in his seventh Supercars round and both the 20-year-old and WAU will have plenty of confidence for the rest of the weekend.

“It is pretty cool and the cars were dialled in since the start of the session. Nice to roll out strong,” the Kiwi said.

“Once I did my race run I figured what it took, so I am pretty happy and we will press on for the rest of the weekend.

“We did a few things in that session and the car felt pretty strong over a race run, but one lap speed we still have a bit to work on.

“I think this is my first time in the top 10 in practice, so it will be nice to go to sleep with a bit of pace under my belt.”

The mammoth 90-minute session began at dusk with the sun setting in the distance and all 26 cars took to the track.

The margins were close straight away with only 0.05s splitting Mostert and Brown.

Both drivers improved but Brown found the most time and was the first into 1m30s window to go two tenths clear of Mostert and Brodie Kostecki. 

Payne felt a “big vibration” on his opening lap and went straight to the garage as the team diagnosed an engine issue.

It was not until the 24-minute mark the #19 returned to the track.

Reynolds also spent some time in the garage during the opening half an hour with ergonomics complaints.

As the opening half hour progressed, attention quickly turned to race runs and established the ever notorious tyre degradation with the floodlights in full effect as around 2s was lost over a 13-lap stint.

Wood’s run was even longer, going close to 20 laps with a drop off of around 3s.

Percat found some pace at the 30-minute mark, displacing Kostecki from P3. 

His younger MSR teammate Hill found even more pace just shy of the hour mark and came within 0.0003s of Brown.

But after 53 minutes at the top, the #87 was knocked off by Mostert, who went two tenths clear with a 1:30.6666, which was edged out by Percat by 0.0395s soon after.

Happy hour started to kick off inside the final 10 minutes with Wood and Waters the first to improve in the top seven, while Dalton rose from 24th to 18th and Love shot into the top 10 briefly.

One driver unable to improve from eighth was Kostecki, who was suffering more steering rack frustrations.

Wood went purple in the final two sectors to sneak ahead of Percat by 0.0429s.

Waters was also on a hot lap with a fastest first sector but made a mistake in the mid part of the lap.

After 90 minutes of track time, teams have plenty of data to churn through before qualifying takes place at 14.50 AEST Saturday afternoon.

Image: Peter Norton EPIC Sports Photography

Supercars Sydney SuperNight Practice results

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