MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - SEPTEMBER 12: (L-R) Ryan Wood driver of the #2 Mobil1 Truck Assist Racing Ford Mustang GT and Fabian Coulthard driver of the #2 Mobil1 Truck Assist Racing Ford Mustang GT during the Penrite Oil Sandown 500, part of the 2024 Supercars Championship Series at Sandown International Motor Raceway, on September 12, 2024 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Daniel Kalisz/Getty Images)
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - SEPTEMBER 12: (L-R) Ryan Wood driver of the #2 Mobil1 Truck Assist Racing Ford Mustang GT and Fabian Coulthard driver of the #2 Mobil1 Truck Assist Racing Ford Mustang GT during the Penrite Oil Sandown 500, part of the 2024 Supercars Championship Series at Sandown International Motor Raceway, on September 12, 2024 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Daniel Kalisz/Getty Images)
The first of the Supercars’ 2024 endurance rounds is this weekend at the Sandown 500 and will be a great indicator as to how the Kiwi pairing of rookie Ryan Wood and mentor Fabian Coulthard get on.
Wood has the pace to run up front and counts former Supercars’series winner Shane van Gisbergen as a fan. He’s proved himself in other categories, such as the Porsche Carrera Cup Australia and Super2, and has notched up two fourth places and started on the front row in Supercars.
Consistency has been a little elusive and he sits 17th on the points table with 1045 points, a fair chunk of change behind series leader Will Brown (1980).
However, having the highly experienced Coulthard sharing driver duties can only bode well for a good result this weekend.
“I’m really looking forward to the enduros to be honest,” Coulthard told the Weekend Herald.
“I’ve been working a lot with Ryan during the year so far and he’s come on leaps and bounds.
Ryan Wood and Fabian Coulthard are ready for action at this weekend's Penrite Oil Sandown 500, part of the 2024 Supercars Championship. Photo / Getty Images
“The car is becoming more refined and the Gen3 is getting better as we understand them more and the parity between the two brands is getting better.
“In all honesty, we like the same things on the car and the way it handles, which is good.
“When we hop out of the car, Ryan’s feedback is very similar to mine, which is very helpful as we can tune the car to the benefit of both of us.”
Wood has a good working relationship with his fellow New Zealander whose role is mentor and co-driver. Coulthard is no stranger to endurance racing having finished second at Bathurst in 2022, and is well aware of the quirks at the Sandown track.
Wood said he is excited about teaming up with Coulthard and looking forward to increasing his learning at the top level of tin-top racing.
“It’s been awesome having Fabian around. He’s been at the majority of the rounds this year and it’s helped me a lot. When things haven’t gone smoothly it’s been a real help having someone who has experienced the good and the bad,” he said.
“Now to share the car together will be great. It helps we’re both Kiwis and I hope we can roll out strong this weekend and put on a show for everyone.
“This year has been difficult at times and having Fabian around to help is fantastic and being able to share the car with a great driver like Fabs is great.”
Despite an up-and-down season for Wood at Walkinshaw Andretti Racing (WAU) the team are confident heading into the endurance rounds after putting considerable time and effort over the summer break to improving their cars.
“We’ve had a few test and ride days in the car and I feel we’ve prepared the best we can. The cars have evolved and the performance and the package are good,” said Coulthard.
“It’s going to be an interesting event this weekend. It was a pretty tough time last year at Sandown [both WAU cars were excluded from practice due to incorrect drop gear ratio].
“We’re looking forward to turning things around this year at Sandown.”
While the eyes of most Kiwi motorsport fans will be on Sandown this weekend, there are plenty of other Kiwis in action abroad.
Scott Dixon, Marcus Armstrong and Scott McLaughlin are at the last race of the IndyCar season at Nashville this weekend. McLaughlin has an extreme outside chance of winning the series and needs the two contenders Alex Palou and Will Power to fall over. Callum Hedge is also racing at The Glen in the Indy NXT series and sits fourth in the championship.
Shane van Gisbergen is at Watkins Glen contesting the Cup and the Xfinity Series and could easily pick up another win as they’re racing on a road course. Brendon Hartley and Earl Bamber are in Japan for the penultimate round of the World Endurance Championship and Hartley has a mathematical chance of defending his world title.
Coulthard is doing double duty at Sandown and will also contest the Porsche Carrera Cup Australia, as is Marco Giltrap.
No Kiwis on the F1 grid per se as Liam Lawson is still in the pits when it comes to securing a seat, but the championship hits the Baku City streets, Azerbaijan, this weekend and the championship is hotting up quite nicely at the moment.
