Wood will undertake a rookie test day at The Bend Motorsport Park tomorrow, ahead of Event 2 of the Repco Supercars Championship at the Formula 1 Rolex Australian Grand Prix.
The 20-year-old will arrive at Albert Park without a single point to his name, but hardly disgraced himself in his first competitive outing in the #2 Mobil 1 Truck Assist Mustang.
He was originally eighth-fastest in Qualifying for Race 1 at the Thrifty Bathurst 500 and thus set to partake in the first Top 10 Shootout of the year until he lost his fastest lap time because of a yellow flag at the final corner.
A day later, he would miss the one-lap dash by the grand total of 0.0135s and lined up 11th on the starting grid.
In Race 1, though, Wood did not complete a lap after a four-wide squeeze when the lights went out saw him escorted into the barriers at Hell Corner.
In Race 2, he was involved in the start-line tangle in which Cameron Hill skewed across the track, causing steering damage, then copped more contact in what was thought to be a clash with Mark Winterbottom.
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Nevertheless, the Kiwi had gone a long way to vindicating WAU’s decision to promote him from its Dunlop Super2 Series programme after just one year.
“I think he made a pretty big statement in his first qualifying session as a main game driver, getting P8,” began Walkinshaw as he summed up Wood’s weekend.
“It’s unfortunate he lost the lap because of yellow flags but the timesheet doesn’t lie; and he put in a fantastic performance and he backed it up [the following day] as well with the P11 and only just missed out on the [top] 10 again.
“So, he’s definitely got raw talent, he’s definitely got a lot of speed; I think he’s going to be a championship-winning driver one year.
“But, at the moment, he had his first baptism of fire at Bathurst in the middle of the pack and had two incidents which arguably weren’t his fault.
“So, it’s obviously disappointing, he’s disappointed as well because obviously he Wanted to be able to having a fair crack having, having a fight everyone, but unfortunately that’s how motorsport is sometimes.
“But, I think the important thing is, the attitude has been fantastic, he’s shown what he can do in qualifying, and the racing side of his development is something that’s just going to continue improving as he as he gets more laps in the car and as he has more battles with people like this [ie established front-running drivers].”
Wood will not be the only rookie testing at Shell V-Power Motorsport Park tomorrow, with the Blanchard Racing Team also making the trip across to South Australia, for Aaron Love.
Penrite Racing used up a ‘rookie’ day for second-year driver Matt Payne, as is its right, at Winton last week.
Meanwhile, Wood’s team-mate, Chaz Mostert, sits third in the championship after two podiums at Mount Panorama in the #25 Mobil 1 Optus Mustang.
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