Wood eager for 'unique' Friday challenge in Townsville

The most recent winner in the Repco Supercars Championship, Ryan Wood, is ready for the challenge of a 100km Friday sprint race to kickstart proceedings at the NTI Townsville 500.

The penultimate round of the inaugural Repco Sprint Cup reverts back to the format used at the season-opening Thrifty Sydney 500, with a 100km Friday race, and two 200km refuelling races over Saturday and Sunday. Tickets for the event are on sale now.

It will be the first time the format is used on a street circuit, before it returns in a slightly tweaked form for the bp Adelaide Grand Final, where Saturday and Sunday's races remain the traditional 250km for a mammoth 600km finale.

The on-track schedule for this year's event was released yesterday with the Repco Supercars Championship to be supported by a bumper support line-up headlined by the Dunlop Super2 Series.

"Racing on Friday does spice things up a bit, and I think it'll be quite unique on a street track. On a normal track it comes pretty natural because it's not as difficult as a street track," said the 88th winner in ATCC/Supercars history.

"You take time to build up, so I think that is going to catch a few people out. Probably not so much Townsville, but later on in the year at Adelaide and the Gold Coast.

"Townsville is going to be an awesome event, and hopefully we can get some trophies."

It will be the third time that Wood has tackled the Townsville Street Circuit, having contested the 2023 Super2 round in a WAU Commodore.

The 21-year-old Kiwi says that the North Queensland city has quickly become one of his favourites to race in, saying: "Racing in Townsville is I'd say top five on the calendar because of just how many variables there are."

"It's a super unique track, a hybrid between a street circuit and a normal track, and then the weather is always different as well, last year we got some rain thrown at us which makes it pretty difficult on a street track with all the painted lines.

"The atmosphere in Townsville is really cool as well because the fans are so close to the track, so really excited to get back here, and even better because it's the NTI Townsville 500, so looking forward to getting back.

There is also a massive schedule of off-track entertainment for the weekend, featuring Pro Bull Riding Australia, Summernats goes Troppo, live music from Dylan Wright, and an Australian Defence Force Display.

Wood said of the off-track product: "It's going to be awesome the off-track stuff, obviously the bull riding and that sort of stuff is going to be really exciting.

"I think it just gives more people an example of why they should come to the Supercars events for all the entertainment, not only on-track but off-track. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone there."

"Coming up to Townsville it's always awesome to be up in the hot weather, in the car it does get quite hot, so sometimes you're dreading it, but at the end of the day we're super lucky to be racing up here.

"Like I said, the whole town and community gets around it, and I'm looking forward to feeling the atmosphere when I get here in Townsville."

The 2025 season resumes in Darwin in June 20-22, followed by Townsville on July 11-13.