The young Kiwi was initially tied to one-make Porsche racing when he arrived in Australia, bursting onto the local scene with a rapid showing in Michelin Sprint Challenge in 2022.
At that point he was part of the Porsche New Zealand scholarship programme, which led to him being offered – and accepting – a Porsche NZ-backed seat in Carrera Cup for 2023.
That was made public in November 2022, only for Wood to announce a little over a month later that he would instead be racing Super2 with Walkinshaw Andretti United.
That came after he impressed WAU during an evaluation day and was targeted to lead the squad’s return to the second tier of Supercars.
An impressive showing in Super2 has since seen him graduate to the main game with WAU.
The decision to renege on the Porsche deal was a difficult one for Wood, given how much support he had received from the Giltrap Group – which was funding the Porsche programme – from his karting days.
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However, as he told The Hard Podcast, the opportunity to make an immediate impression in Supercars was too good to pass up.
“It was obviously hard,” he said. “For me, it was more [that] the Giltrap family and the Giltrap Group had helped me since I was nine, 10 years old.
“So to kind of throw back their programme in their face a little bit was hard for me, and not only me, but my family and my other supporters.
“So to end up having their support, even now.. they were great through the whole thing.
“I explained to them that [Supercars] was my goal since I was seven years old. They helped invest to make sure that the Super2 campaign worked. They sponsored me, helped put me in the right environment and the right connections.
“It’s pretty hard to go, ‘oh, I don’t want to race a Porsche anymore’. But for me, I knew where I wanted to be and what country and everything like that.
“And yeah, it’s pretty cool to now be sitting here and it’s paid off a little bit.”
For more with Ryan Wood watch the full episode of The Hard Card above or listen via the podcast links below.
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