{"id":383638,"date":"2026-04-17T04:25:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T04:25:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/383638\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T04:25:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T04:25:10","slug":"supercars-drivers-deliver-first-impressions-of-christchurch-track","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/383638\/","title":{"rendered":"Supercars drivers deliver first impressions of Christchurch track"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/MH7_6758a-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\u2018Semi-trailer around a car park\u2019: Drivers react to Ruapuna\"\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRyan Wood was third fastest in practice for the Christchurch Super440. <\/p>\n<p>The Supercars field sampled the South Island circuit for the first time in the sole practice session this morning ahead of a busy day that includes a 120-kilometre race.<\/p>\n<p>The early impressions were positive, <a href=\"https:\/\/speedcafe.com\/supercars-news-2026-christchuch-super440-practice-report-results-matt-payne-fastest-comments-reaction-highlights\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">pacesetter Matt Payne particularly enamoured with the 3.3-kilometre layout.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cOh man, it\u2019s been a long time since I\u2019ve had that much fun going out there and just ripping a new track,\u201d the Grove Racing driver told Fox Sports.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s so cool to drive, it\u2019s so busy. I was just having a ball out there.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe [Grove] cars were ripper fast, so thanks to the guys and girls at Penrite Racing, they did a mega job.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGreat way to start the weekend and yeah, really, really, really cool.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/bit.ly\/4cq9M8W\" style=\"color:#f06d25;\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Click here <\/a>to see what it takes to build the Gold Coast street circuit <\/p>\n<p>Jason Richards Memorial Trophy points leader Ryan Wood ended up third, despite several off-track moments as he re-learned the circuit.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was full on,\u201d he said. \u201cI forgot how cool Ruapuna is. It was a lot of fun.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI made a few mistakes and had a few spins, so it was action-packed for me and happy with where we ended.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have a bit of work to do; the Grove cars seem like they\u2019re fast.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Jayden Ojeda, who led the Chevrolet charge with the sixth-fastest time, had the most descriptive take of the layout.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe circuit\u2019s pretty interesting,\u201d he said. \u201cIt feels like you\u2019re trying to drive a semi-trailer around a car park. It\u2019s pretty busy through the infield.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s been a fun circuit to learn and a lot of dirt, we\u2019re making a mess of the joint, to be honest.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt will be cool come racing to see how the cars race around here.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ojeda was less forthcoming when it came to analysing the aero changes to the Camaro package made ahead of first practice.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn terms of the adjustments, I can\u2019t tell the difference,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou know, it\u2019s such a small change that if you can tell the difference, you\u2019d be doing pretty good.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Qualifying for Race 1 will take place at 2:15pm local time.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/fcttn.com\/products\/v8s-in-nz-tee\" rel=\"nofollow sponsored noopener\" data-bid=\"1\" data-no-instant=\"1\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"border: none; vertical-align: middle;\" src=\"https:\/\/speedcafe.b-cdn.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/3-1.webp\" alt=\"\"\/><br \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ryan Wood was third fastest in practice for the Christchurch Super440. The Supercars field sampled the South Island&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":383639,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[28872,67373,28873,111,139,69,15643,13401,213,154397],"class_list":{"0":"post-383638","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-grove-racing","9":"tag-jayden-ojeda","10":"tag-matt-payne","11":"tag-new-zealand","12":"tag-newzealand","13":"tag-nz","14":"tag-premiair-racing","15":"tag-ryan-wood","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-walkinshaw-twg-racing"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=383638"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383638\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/383639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=383638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=383638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=383638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}