Ryan Wood celebrates taking pole position for the second Supercars race of the ITM Taupo Super440.
There were jubilant scenes in the Walkinshaw TWG Racing garage as Wood topped the timesheets in the #2 Toyota Supra.
The New Zealander set a 1:25.8734s to put 0.0169s on Triple Eight Race Engineering’s Will Brown, who threatened to dethrone the hometown hero in the dying seconds of the two-part qualifying.
“Really cool. It’s awesome. Big thank you to everyone, especially my team,” said Wood.
“We really tuned it up and that super soft [compound tyre] was tricky, so to rebound and work on my driving a lot in that session and get this pole means a lot.
“Cool to do it at home. Big thank you to all the fans. It’s pretty special.”
Wood’s best lap wasn’t completely clean. He flirted with the grass at Turn 9 and kicked up a bunch of dust through the high-speed right-hander.
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“I think I lost a little bit [of time]. I was pushing hard,” said Wood.
“I need to be a little bit better but I’m happy. Our race car needs a bit of work. We’ll do the best we can. We’re in a good two spots, so let’s just go have fun.”
Brown was trailed by his teammate Broc Feeney, who had been the benchmark after the first run in the second part of qualifying.
Brodie Kostecki paced the first leg of qualifying with a 1:25.8816s – the only driver to go under the 1m26s benchmark initially.
However, he couldn’t quite continue his timesheet-topping pace from the super soft compound tyre to the soft and wound up fourth.
Fifth went the way of Blanchard Racing Team driver James Golding while the top 10 was completed by Chaz Mostert (Walkinshaw TWG Racing), Anton De Pasquale (Team 18), Matt Payne (Grove Racing), Kai Allen (Grove Racing), and Cameron Waters (Tickford Racing).
Chevrolet continued to struggle. No Camaro driver made the top 10 in qualifying for Race 1 and De Pasquale was the sole Camaro the top 10 in qualifying for Race 2.
Matt Stone Racing driver Jack Le Brocq was once again on the cusp of making the top 10 but was 11th.
Race 1 of the ITM Taupo Super440 gets underway at 10:20am AEST, the first 120km race of the weekend.
Schedule changes due to the impending arrival of Cyclone Vaianu meant Supercars has brought the longer, 200km race forward to Saturday afternoon. Race 2 gets underway at 1:30pm AEST.
Results: Repco Supercars Championship ITM Taupo Super440, Qualifying Race 2
Pos
Num
Driver
Team
Car
Lap
Diff
Gap
1
2
Ryan Wood
Walkinshaw TWG Racing
Toyota GR Supra A90
1:25.8734
2
888
William Brown
Triple Eight Race Engineering
Ford Mustang GT
1:25.8903
0.0169
0.0169
3
88
Broc Feeney
Triple Eight Race Engineering
Ford Mustang GT
1:25.9328
0.0594
0.0425
4
17
Brodie Kostecki
Dick Johnson Racing
Ford Mustang GT
1:25.9432
0.0698
0.0104
5
7
James Golding
Blanchard Racing Team
Ford Mustang GT
1:26.1274
0.254
0.1842
6
1
Chaz Mostert
Walkinshaw TWG Racing
Toyota GR Supra A90
1:26.1321
0.2587
0.0047
7
18
Anton De Pasquale
Team 18
Chev Camaro ZL1
1:26.2209
0.3475
0.0888
8
19
Matthew Payne
Grove Racing
Ford Mustang GT
1:26.2961
0.4227
0.0752
9
26
Kai Allen
Grove Racing
Ford Mustang GT
1:26.4152
0.5418
0.1191
10
6
Cameron Waters
Tickford Racing
Ford Mustang GT
1:26.4337
0.5603
0.0185
Q1
11
4
Jack Le Brocq
Matt Stone Racing
Chev Camaro ZL1
1:26.4994
0.626
0.0657
12
55
Thomas Randle
Tickford Racing
Ford Mustang GT
1:26.7619
0.8885
0.2625
13
20
David Reynolds
Team 18
Chev Camaro ZL1
1:26.7792
0.9058
0.0173
14
3
Aaron Cameron
Blanchard Racing Team
Ford Mustang GT
1:26.8247
0.9513
0.0455
15
31
Jayden Ojeda
PremiAir Racing
Chev Camaro ZL1
1:26.8717
0.9983
0.047
16
8
Andre Heimgartner
Brad Jones Racing
Toyota GR Supra A90
1:26.9270
1.0536
0.0553
17
9
Jobe Stewart
Erebus Motorsport
Chev Camaro ZL1
1:26.9624
1.089
0.0354
18
10
Zach Bates
Matt Stone Racing
Chev Camaro ZL1
1:27.0099
1.1365
0.0475
19
14
Cameron Hill
Brad Jones Racing
Toyota GR Supra A90
1:27.0408
1.1674
0.0309
20
99
Cooper Murray
Erebus Motorsport
Chev Camaro ZL1
1:27.0481
1.1747
0.0073
21
777
Declan Fraser
PremiAir Racing
Chev Camaro ZL1
1:27.1247
1.2513
0.0766
22
38
Rylan Gray
Dick Johnson Racing
Ford Mustang GT
1:27.1918
1.3184
0.0671
23
96
Macauley Jones
Brad Jones Racing
Toyota GR Supra A90
1:27.2709
1.3975
0.0791
24
11
Jackson Walls
Triple Eight Race Engineering
Ford Mustang GT
1:27.3027
1.4293
0.0318
