Today will bring about the biggest races of Ryan Wood’s and Matthew McCutcheon’s careers thus far as they launch into action for their respective Super2 and Super3 campaigns in Newcastle.
The duo were impressive in yesterday’s practice sessions which saw both series running in a combined field, as they will today.
Wood, driving for Walkinshaw Andretti United, was quick to get up to speed in his Holden Commodore to go sixth fastest of the 20 strong Super2 field. He went on to back this up with the eighth best lap in Practice 2 to show he has the pace to be right up at the front.
The step up to Super3 is also proving a smooth transition for McCutcheon who was fourth fastest in class of the first session before topping Practice 2.
Zak Best emerged as the Super2 pace-setter to top Kai Allen by two tenths in both runs.
Jobe Stewart led the Super3 field in the first practice by putting nearly half a second on his rivals. McCutcheon got the better of the Australian in the second practice by a tight margin of just .0280 seconds.
Both Wood and McCutcheon will hit the track at 12.25pm (NZ time) for qualifying with the opening 21-lap race to take place at 3.50pm.
The Newcastle Street Circuit is sure to test competitors with its unforgiving nature sure to bring about a Safety Car or two. This was a similar theme in 2022 where a significant amount of race time was spent under yellow flags.
Allthesame, expect some quality action with two extremely talented Kiwis right in the mix as they begin their campaigns.
They’ll do it all again tomorrow with another qualifying and race to round out the weekend in Newcastle.
The Dunlop Super2/Super3 Series will be shown live on Sky Sport 5 (055).
