Year: Second
Team: HHC Motorsport
TERM ONE
Grade: C+
Comment: Building on a strong end to his rookie season, Wood kicked off 2017 with a string of top five finishes. With six podiums and three fastest laps from five rounds, he was running third in the drivers’ championships by the summer break.
Grade: C
Comment: After a strong opening weekend at Snetterton, where Wood took his first Ginetta Junior victory, his results began to fall away. He was still a regular inside the top five, but fell behind Dan Harper and Kiern Jewiss in the championship fight.
Overall Grade: C+
Best moment of the season: Wood claimed his first victory in car racing at Snetterton, snatching the lead on the final lap. The HHC Motorsport driver spent the first part of the race stuck behind Tom Gamble, trying to find a way past into third as the top two escaped up the road. The top four eventually closed up, but Wood was still at the back of the four-way fight. He followed Gamble past Adam Smalley in the closing stages of the race and was third on the start of the last lap. Two cleanly executed moves around the outside of Gamble and race leader Jewiss late in the race put him first just before the chequered flag.
Worst moment of the season: Wood was wiped out of the opening race at Thruxton on the penultimate lap. He had been running seventh, having worked his way up from 10th on the grid, when he was sent into a spin with damage to the front of his Ginetta. The incident dropped him to fourth in the title fight, but it didn’t impact his starting position for the second race of the day, where he finished sixth
Feature credit: Caroline Rhea
