news: Wood takes comfortable Super2 win

Ryan Wood was dominant in his victory aboard the WAU Commodore ZB. Image: InSyde Media

Ryan Wood didn’t get the best start, but the Walkinshaw Andretti United driver capitalised when his nearest rivals ran wide in the first corner, to take the Dunlop Super2 and outright lead for the duration of the 31-lap, 40-minute race.

In the Brad Neill-owned Nissan Altima, Cameron McLeod was sixth outright, mixing it with the best of Super2 and easily in front of his Super3 rivals. However, as he started the last lap, the Nissan engine went noticeably off song and came to a stop on the back straight. That gave Jobe Stewart (Image Racing Holden Commodore VF) the Super3 victory.

At the start, Wood (Commodore ZB) was not away as quick as fellow front row starter Aaron Love (Petronas Motorsport Ford Mustang), nor Zak Best (Anderson Motorsport Mustang) who came from the third row into the lead. The two Mustangs ran wide at Turn 1 and Wood led.

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“I thought I burnt the clutch, and it bogged down, Zak [Best] was out on the dirty side and somehow I came out in front,” Wood said.

Wood led throughout and won by 5.8s while Best maintained second to finish just in front of Wood’s team-mate Zach Bates, who slotted ahead of Love in the Turn 1 exchange. Later Love speared off at Turn 9 while being passed by Zane Morse (Mustang).

From 10th at the end of Lap 1, Kai Allen (ZB) worked his way forward and relegated Morse to ultimately finish fourth. Aaron Cameron (Mustang) finished sixth in front of Cooper Murray (VF), Jay Hanson (VF) and Aaron Seton whose Commodore was struggling with a power steering issue but still held off the Jack Perkins Holden.

Cameron Crick finished further up but he was penalised five seconds for a starting infringement and was positioned ahead of Matt Chahda, Jordyn Sinni and Lochie Dalton in their Commodores. Love extracted himself from his off, and placed 16th.

With the demise of McLeod, Stewart, who was 13th, has been able to increase his Super3 points lead. Mason Kelly (Altima) was second in class. Jett Johnson (Altima) was third until hit with a driving infringement penalty that relegated him to fourth behind Valentino Astuti (Altima). Ryan Gilroy was fifth after he had an encounter with Brad Vaughan (Super 3 Mustang) who was also penalised.