Seasoned Racer Wood Wins First Dunlop Series Championship
Dale Wood has come away from the weekend with his first Dunlop Series Championship.
While it was down to the final event at the Sydney NRMA Motoring & Services 500, Wood had a reasonable lead on second-placed Ash Walsh.
It wasn’t all smooth sailing for the eventual winner after a mistake in Saturday’s race delegated him to ninth late in the race.
However, his efforts were still enough to clinch the title in the weekend’s first of two races in his GB Galvanising/Wilson Security Falcon.
“Perhaps it wasn’t the round I was hoping for but I still came away with a nice trophy under my arm,” the former Mike Kable Young Gun award winner said.
Last year’s Dunlop Series top three drivers each found a path to the main game for 2013 – Scott McLaughlin and Chaz Mostert both having scored race wins in their debut seasons. And while Scott Pye had a more character-building season, he finished in the top 10 at the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 and has signed on for the next two years with iconic Ford team Dick Johnson Racing.
Wood has competed in the main game before – he contested part of the 2009 season with Kelly Racing, but the two parted ways mid-season.
“The ‘been there before’ term haunts me a little bit,” he said. “I don’t see it as much as an opportunity, back then.
“It was a rough introduction and if I knew then what I know now it might have been a different situation – I probably wouldn’t have taken it up. I would have chipped away at the Development Series and built up a bit of reputation.
“It has taken a fair while to get back into the position that I am in now and I am not about to jump at any stupid opportunities I suppose. I will see what comes.”
The silly season has well and truly begun with rumours of REC (Racing Entitlement Contract) and driver movements rampant.
Wood could not confirm his plans for 2014.
“Every Christmas I am an unhappy man wondering what I am going to do next year,” he said.
However, prior to the PIRTEK Enduro Cup – which he raced alongside Chaz Mostert at Dick Johnson Racing – Wood said he believed he was ready to step up into top tier V8 Supercars.
“I would certainly like to go into the main series next year – I believe I’ve shown enough, done enough, and believe in myself that I’m ready,” he said. “I love the sport, I love the industry.”
Johnson – whose five-time Championship winning record was equaled by Jamie Whincup on Sunday – said Wood had done a great job in the second-tier series and was pleased to see one of his team’s 2013 co-drivers succeed.
“They are the guys who are coming through,” Johnson said of the Dunlop Series racers.
“Who knows where it will go from there for them.”
Infants Friend driver Walsh (who also drove with DJR in the PIRTEK Enduro Cup) was runner-up in the Dunlop Series Championship, 264 points adrift of Wood, with Biante Model Cars' Andrew Jones, Eggleston Motorsport's Jack Perkins and Sherrin Rentais' Steve Owen rounding out the top five. Click here for complete Championship standings.
The Dunlop Series lines up alongside the V8 Supercars at season-opener the Clipsal 500, running on the streets of Adelaide from February 27 to March 2.
Amendments have been made to next year’s formats, meaning the Dunlop Series will have longer 40-minute races and at key events Clipsal, the Townsville 500 and Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000, there will be a separate qualifying session for each race.
