RYAN Wood’s ascension to the 2024 Repco Supercars Championship grid after just one Super2 season is rare but not unprecedented.
Wood is currently halfway through his rookie campaign in a Supercar, and already has a pole position and two race wins on the board.
He’ll very much be thrown in the deep end next season when he takes on the mantle of being Chaz Mostert’s teammate at Walkinshaw Andretti United.
So, he’ll have one of the category’s absolute A-graders on the other side of the garage – and further to that, WAU has seemed fairly Mostert-centric since his arrival in 2020.
Combine that with the fact Wood will be entering 2024 with not even a main game co-drive under his belt and it’s a somewhat daunting prospect.
But among the few cases to graduate after a single Super2 season – strictly for this purpose, one full campaign (not one-and-a-bit, like Mostert, for example) – there are four notable survivors who are still on the grid.
Here’s who they are, how their Super2 season went, and what panned out the following year and beyond…
Cameron Hill
Super2 ranking: Fifth (2022)
Rookie year championship placing: 23rd (2023, so far)
The only other such case in the past half-decade, Hill won the 2021 Carrera Cup Australia title before being picked up by Triple Eight to race in Super2.
Hill transitioned reasonably well, qualifying consistently towards the front and collecting three top three finishes.
That was enough for Matt Stone Racing to swoop when a vacancy emerged as Todd Hazelwood jumped ship to the Blanchard Racing Team.
Hill has done a reasonable job this year, although in-form Jack Le Brocq has set a particularly high intra-team bar.
MSR is making all the right noises to suggest Hill won’t be in and straight out (i.e. he’s tipped to be retained for 2024).
Mark Winterbottom
Super2 ranking: First (2003)
Rookie year championship placing: 18th (2004)
At the other end of the ledger is ‘Frosty’.
After finishing runner-up to Jamie Whincup in the 2002 Australian Formula Ford Championship, Winterbottom was an instant success in a Supercar – winning his very first Super2 race.
That Wakefield Park result set the tone and he’d go on to win the 2003 title.
The next step of the transition was a little slower, Winterbottom spending two learning years at Larkham Motorsport (2004-05) before rocketing to the front upon signing with Ford Performance Racing.
He’s now in his 20th full-time season, which has already included a race win.
David Reynolds
Super2 ranking: Fourth (2008)
Rookie year championship placing: 22nd (2009)
Winterbottom’s 2024 teammate is a very similar case to Hill.
Reynolds joined Super2 after clinching the 2007 Carrera Cup crown and adapted well, if not to the dominant level displayed by Winterbottom.
Reynolds took four top three race results, finishing fourth overall in the points.
It was a tough initiation though at Walkinshaw Racing, and he found himself without a primary drive for the following year.
A 2011 lifeline from Kelly Racing relaunched his career, and more than a decade on he is still contending for podiums.
Scott Pye
Super2 ranking: Second (2012)
Rookie year championship placing: 27th (2013)
Having returned from competing abroad in open-wheelers (winning the 2010 British Formula Ford title and taking a race win in 2011 British Formula 3), Pye became part of the star-studded Super2 class of 2012.
Racing for Triple Eight, he enjoyed a consistent run to wind up as Scott McLaughlin’s nearest threat.
His reward was an immediate promotion to Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport, from where he worked his way to Dick Johnson Racing/DJR Team Penske, Walkinshaw Andretti United and now Team 18, where he’s in his fourth and final season.
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