Wood and Allan off to flying start
Kiwi Ryan Wood has bolted out of the blocks in just his second GT World Challenge Australia round at SMP, while Hugo Allan has wowed on debut in a Toyota.
After the first two practice sessions of the second SpeedSeries round at Sydney Motorsport Park, Wood is in a league of his own.
The WAU Supercars driver is rapid in the Team MPC Audi R8, being the only person to record a 1m26s so far.
In the early morning opening practice, Wood was a huge half a second clear with a 1:26.7475.
This benchmark was 0.5175s clear of Jaxon Evans in the Ferrari 296 he is sharing with Elliott Schutte.
They are the only non Audi in the top four that also included Alex Peroni and Broc Feeney.
The rest of the field was more than a second adrift as it was not an hour-long session without drama.
Both Thomas Randle, who is making his GT World Challenge Australia debut and Jayden Ojeda, who is a Mercedes backed driver, got minimal track time.
However, they would not be too concerned given the races will be held in completely different track conditions with a night and afternoon races on the schedule.
Both of them enjoyed plenty of track time in practice 2 where Randle showcased his impressive adaptability.
He and Marcel Zalloua topped the times in the much slower session with a 1:28.1502.
Feeney was second alongside Brad Schumacher with their Audi seven tenths adrift.
Rookie George King showed pace in his Mercedes, while Evans and Schutte remained in the top four.
Once again Ojeda and Paul Lucchitti were towards the bottom of the timesheets in 14th, but this time got plenty of laps under their belt.
Conditions were a factor in a wide open GT4 Australia opening practice.
Emerging on top by a country mile was impressive rookie Hugo Allan.
Recently crowned NZ Toyota GR86 champion Allan is having a crack in the new Toyota Supra EVO 2.
He is sharing the car with Tony Quinn and the Am combination topped the charts with a 1:43.5663.
They enjoyed a huge 1.5602s margin over Tom Hayman and Max Geoghegan.
The young McLaren combination claimed a tight battle for second edging the likes of Cameron Crick, Dnaiel Frougas and Rylan Gray.
With practice out of the way, the intensity rises on Saturday.
In GT World Challenge Australia qualifying is at 13.40 before the night race at 19.55 AEST.
The GT4 Australia grids are set at 10.20 while the opening hour-long race is at 16.40 AEST.
Image: GT World Challenge Australia
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