Wellington karting ace Ryan Wood has made amends for missing out on victory last week by cruising to back-to-back dominant victories in Tuesday night’s Kartsport iRacing Virtual Club Day.
15-year-old Wood proved to be unstoppable all evening at a virtual Summit Point Raceway, claiming a pole position, leading from start-to-finish in race one before backing it up with a victory from the back of the field in the event’s reverse-grid race.
In the opening race, Wood converted his pole position into the lead at turn one.
From there he built a comfortable margin over the challenging pack which peaked at 1.5s over ardent sim-racer Cameron Dance.
Zach Blincoe was the biggest mover in the 10-lap race, crossing the line in a highly credible fifth position after having qualified outside the top-Ten.
Despite a valiant last-lap effort, Wood would see off any desperate assault from Dance to claim a strong victory with Scott Fountain rounding out the podium finishes.
After qualifying on the front row, NZ Formula Ford star Billy Frazer suffered a difficult race where he was often victimised in other drivers’ incidents, consequently finishing down in tenth.
The race ultimately determined the grid order for the evening’s feature race which would be a full-field reverse spread over 20 laps.
It beckoned as a daunting challenge, yet Woods would find himself second by the end of his third tour despite being compelled to start 29th and last.
Woods then set about chasing down teammate Stephen Beaumont before flying past his rival in a slipstream-assisted move along the 880m start/finish straight on lap nine.
From there it was truly game-set-and-match, with Woods cruising home by 4.1s over Beaumont.
Andrew Jackson claimed a strong podium finish ahead of Fountain who edged Dance over the line for fourth position by less than 0.4s.
Woods credited his sublime performance to practice and dedication towards sim-racing over the last few weeks in self-isolation.
“Myself, and guys like Jaden Ransley and Josh Richmond are always on the Sim these days,” he said.
“So putting in a couple of hours here and a couple of hours there obviously helps.”
In the event’s second-tier ‘B’Group’, wins were shared by Stuart Bovey and Richard Moore.
Main Image: KartSport NZ
Well done Ryan Wood