Tickford teen targets Supercars debut after Tassie breakthrough

Rylan Gray is riding a wave of confidence after breaking through for his first race win and pole position in the Dunlop Super2 Series in an impressive display in Tasmania.

After becoming the youngest round winner in Super2 history last year at Bathurst, the 18-year-old doubled his career tally at the Snowy River Caravans Tasmania Super 440, in very different fashion.

Whilst it was consistency that saw him win at Mount Panorama aged just 17 years, 10 months, and 21 days old, Gray was in devastating form in Tasmania, claiming a lights to flag win on Saturday, before climbing through the pack to claim third in the finale.

On a dominant weekend for Tickford Autosport, Gray was the star who shone brightest, and turned a 33-point deficit in the points standings into a 48-point series lead heading into Round 3 at Townsville.

"Yeah it's pretty cool, got the first race win and pole this weekend, so it's been a bit of a dream," said the 18-year-old.

"I probably should've had something similar like this at Sydney, but just a few too many mistakes. I was able to put it all together here, so I'm pretty pumped to come out of here with a win, a pole, a round win, and the championship lead.

"It's cool to see the orange numbers, but I'm not really thinking about that too much this early in the championship, it's a long road from here.

"As long as we can put consistent weekends together, hopefully we'll be there at the end."

Before the next round of the Dunlop Super2 Series, Gray will be making his Repco Supercars Championship debut in Tickford's #5 wildcard program at the betr Darwin Triple Crown in June, aided by mentor Mark Winterbottom.

When asked whether his impressive weekend in Tasmania would be confidence boost ahead of his wildcard campaign, which will also include an Enduro Cup tilt alongside Lochie Dalton, Gray replied, "Yeah it is.

"We're in the Gen3 car in the next couple of weeks, so we'll focus onto that and into Darwin. It's pretty cool to be doing a wildcard in the main game, so just super pumped, looking forward to that.

"You just learn as much as you can, Frosty goes pretty good there, he got a win there not too long ago, so just learn off him.

"He knows the track well, and just execute is probably the main thing. You put all your best together and you'll be somewhat competitive, so looking forward to how we end up there.

"I'll go and support Lochie in Perth with his wildcard first, and learn stuff over there before we head over to Darwin."

Gray had one of Tickford's main game stars backing his #55 Mustang over the weekend, with Cam Waters stepping up to back the teenager with his Waters Whisky brand.

"It came about at a training camp actually. He said, 'What do you have on your car for the year?' and I said Tickford Autosport on the side of it, so we missed it for the first round, but got it on there for the second one," he said.

"It's been a bit of a good luck charm, so we might have to keep it and see how we go for the rest of the year."

Despite claiming the Super2 points lead for the first time in his career, and with his wildcard program imminent, Gray isn't getting ahead of himself when it comes to a full-time main game promotion in 2026.

"At this point in time, I think you're focusing on the Super2 championship, you put runs on the board so you can market yourself a bit better, and that's what I'm trying to do," Gray said.

"We've started off the year pretty well, and I hopefully we can continue that through the rest."

Round 3 of the 2025 Dunlop Super2 Series will take place at the NTI Townsville 500 from July 11-13.