Rookie Wood wows to top Sydney practice

It marked the first time the Walkinshaw Andretti United driver topped a Supercars session in his six events to date.

The Kiwi clocked a 1:30.584s on his final lap of Sydney Motorsport Park to eclipse Matt Stone Racing’s Nick Percat at the death by 0.042s.

It’s a timely result for Wood, who has four-time Bathurst 1000 legend Greg Murphy in his corner this weekend.

“Obviously pretty cool,” said Wood on Fox Sports’ coverage.

“The cars are pretty dialed in from lap one of that session. Feeling pretty confident going into tomorrow. It’s a nice way to end tonight.

“We’ve been hanging around a while to drive the race cars and it’s nice to come out pretty strong.

“We did a few things in that session and the car felt really strong over a race run,” he added.

“I went out there and pushed pretty hard out the gate. One-lap speed, probably a bit to work on I think. A few of the boys were on a lap there.”

Wood’s stablemate Chaz Mostert wound up third and 0.082s away. Mostert’s best effort came on his 15th lap a little more than an hour into the session.

Will Brown set the pace initially with a 1:30.899 on just his second lap of the session and only improved his marker to a 1:30.831 on his 25th lap, two tenths off the pace.

Not far behind Percat was his teammate Cameron Hill who clocked a 1:30.900 with half an hour to go.

Cameron Waters (Tickford Racing), Andre Heimgartner (Brad Jones Racing), Anton De Pasquale (Dick Johnson Racing), James Courtney (Blanchard Racing Team), and Broc Feeney (Triple Eight Race Engineering) rounded out the top 10.

Last year’s champion Brodie Kostecki was 12th for Erebus Motorsport just ahead of his teammate Jack Le Brocq in 16th.

Will Davison was a lacklustre 19th some nearly a second off the pace of chart-topper Wood.

Tickford Racing wildcard Lachie Dalton wound up 23rd in the 25-car field.

The 90-minute session that began at dusk was relatively drama-free.

Penrite Racing’s Matt Payne suffered tailshaft trauma inside the first five minutes. He reported a vibration and pitted inside five minutes to replace the troubled part.

The Townsville race winner was only 15th and eight tenths away from his countryman Wood.

Anti-roll bar dramas sidelined Tickford Racing’s Thomas Randle late in the session. He wound up 11th and six tenths off the pace.

Supercars continues on Saturday with qualifying at 2:50pm AEST on Saturday followed by a top 10 shootout at 4:55pm then the solitary night race beginning at 7:35pm AEST.

Sunday’s format is mirrored with qualifying at 12:05pm AEST, the top 10 shootout at 1:40pm, and the race at 4:05pm. Both races are scheduled to run for 51 laps.

Results: Practice, Panasonic Air Conditioning Sydney SuperNight