Brothers Wood top intense Thursday practice in Adelaide

FOR all the championship permutations and wildcard ring-ins, it was a pair of brothers who topped the charts in practice for Adelaide’s final round of the 2025 Porsche Paynter Dixon Carrera Cup Australia Championship.

A late series of flyers in the second of two, 25-minute practice sessions saw Dale Wood eclipse brother Glen by 0.003 seconds to put the pair of Earl Bamber Motorsport-run Porsche’s 1-2 in Equity-One pro class at the end of an extremely competitive day of practice on the Adelaide streets.

The afternoon session was the quickest of the pair, though the elder of the Wood boys topped both sessions today.

Wood has claimed the past two Adelaide wins and is searching for a rare Carrera Cup round hattrick this weekend – as well as his first win of the year.

Gold Coast polesitter Marcos Flack was third aboard his spectacularly liveried Sonic Motor Racing entry, which this weekend is sporting a new paint scheme drawn by kids from the Starlight Children’s Foundation at the Adelaide Women’s and Children’s hospital.

Comeback kid Aaron Love was fourth but a factor immediately on his Carrera Cup return, quickly comfortable aboard his McElrea Racing-prepped entry.

Love is filling in for Caleb Sumich this weekend and was seventh in the first session before improving in the second.

Championship leader Dylan O’Keeffe was fifth – four spots ahead of title rival Harri Jones – while Robert de Haan’s Australian debut was predictably impressive: sixth in both practice sessions and only 0.29s away from the fastest time in the second session.

David Russell was next, with Bayley Hall – who was second in the opening practice session – Jones and Marco Giltrap completing the top-10.

Thursday’s running was highlighted by two clean but incredibly close sessions with a stack of contenders making themselves ready for the weekend.

Home-town heroes Max Vidau and Tom Taplin finished 14th and 18th, respectively today.

In the Acronis Pro-Am class, Matt Slavin positioned himself ahead of the title contenders in practice, with Matt Belford, who sits second in the class, next and points leader Rodney Jane in third.