Wood tops tight Sydney practice with late flyer

Ryan Wood has topped a Supercars session for the first time, with the rising star beating Nick Percat and Ford teammate Chaz Mostert in a close finish to practice in Sydney.

The sole practice session at the Panasonic Air Conditioning Sydney SuperNight, which ran for 90 minutes, ended with a top three covered by just 0.0824s.

Matt Stone Racing driver Percat led into the closing minutes, before 20-year-old Wood clocked a 1:30.5842s to end up fastest by just 0.0429s.

Walkinshaw Andretti United star Mostert, who is third in the championship, was third with a 1:30.6666s, with championship leader Will Brown fourth.

Cameron Hill, Cam Waters, Andre Heimgartner, Anton De Pasquale, James Courtney and Broc Feeney rounded out the top 10, which was covered by 0.4229s.

No driver logged more laps than Wood's 38, with reigning champion Brodie Kostecki only clocking 17.

"Feeling pretty confident going into tomorrow. It's a nice way to end tonight," said Wood, who is being mentored in Sydney by Supercars legend Greg Murphy.

"We've been hanging around for a while to drive the race cars, and it's nice to come out pretty strong.

"My eyes took, like, probably 20 minutes to adjust fully, then did my race run and started to really figure out what it took, the concentration is pretty high.

"Really happy and we'll press on for the rest of the weekend."

Cars rolled out as the sun set around Sydney Motorsport Park, with Brown setting an early 1:31.6040s. Mostert followed up with a 1:31.5460s, before Brown recorded a 1:30.8998s, which proved the only 1:30s lap for the majority of the session.

The top 10 was Brown, Mostert, Kostecki, Waters, De Pasquale, Feeney, Percat, Wood, Thomas Randle and Will Davison as cars returned to pit lane following the first runs.

One car that didn’t feature in the first part of the session was the #19 Penrite Mustang, with Matt Payne sidelined as his team completed a tail shaft change.

Drivers were pushing the limits early, with Turn 5 (De Pasquale, Feeney, Courtney and Tim Slade) and Turn 10 (Percat, Wood, Heimgartner, Lochie Dalton and Aaron Love) popular track limits breach locations.

At the 28-minute mark, Payne returned to the track and jumped up to 13th with a 1:31.8815.

Brown held sway at the halfway mark, with Mostert, Percat, Kostecki, Waters, De Pasquale, Feeney, Hill, Wood and Slade completing the top 10.

As the balance of the field took on car changes in the pits, a number of drivers laid down long runs. Notably, Wood completed a race run, with Waters dropping into the 1:35s during his run.

At the 52-minute mark, Hill jumped to second with a 1:30.9001s, just 0.0003s behind Brown, before Mostert put 0.23s on the field with a 1:30.6666s.

With 27 minutes to go, Percat jumped to the top — albeit by 0.0395s over Mostert — with a 1:30.6271s.

Wood moved to sixth with a 1:31.1169s to sixth, and pressed on to record a 1:30.5842s in the closing minutes to claim top spot. Percat and Mostert held onto second and third, with Brown ending up fourth with a 1:30.8311s on his 25th and final lap of the session.

Wildcard driver Lochie Dalton, meanwhile, was 23rd in his first Supercars outing.

Supercars will return to the track on Saturday for Boost Mobile Qualifying at 2:50pm AEST, which will set the running order for the Top Ten Shootout at 4:55pm.

The first 200km night race of the weekend, the 51-lap Race 15, will commence at 7:35pm.