Dale Wood’s Latest Pursuits

Joining a new team like Earl Bamber Motorsport (EBM) and setting up a new car like the 2022 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup Car (Type 992) is a massive commitment, so it comes as no surprise that Dale Wood has had a mixed year of racing in Australia’s Carrera Cup.

‘It was very much a learning year,’ Dale explains. ‘What it’s lacked is probably consistency. We’ve had some standout results, but we can’t seem to carry that around at the moment. We’ve had some rounds we’ve been battling just outside of, or only just inside the top ten, which isn’t where we should be and definitely not where we want to be.’

At the Sandown round in Melbourne, the weather was up and down, wet and dry but even so, the results were good for Dale and his team.

‘We tried a few things on the car that I think will be very good moving forward,’ Dale reflects. ‘The results were very good for us there in the wet, and that’s maybe down to the field. There are a lot of really fast young drivers; probably what they lack sometimes is experience. That is something I’ve got a lot of, so that was quite good for me.

‘Our final round was at the Gold Coast, another really exciting event. We hadn't driven the Porsche 992 on anything like the Gold Coast circuit, so it was certainly very interesting.’

For Dale the Gold Coast event showed the speed that he and his Porsche could achieve topping the timesheets in practice one then finishing the opening race in third place. Dale is a very experienced and in-demand driver with five Carrera Cup campaigns under his belt as well as numerous V8 Supercar stints. He’s raced at Bathurst on many occasions, giving him the edge on a very testing track. As he says, though, he is taking it one race at a time this year to ensure the team has the ideal car setup for 2023.

‘I can look back on this year and know we could really build on this but I also think there wouldn't be a person in the field that wouldn’t be feeling that same thing,’ he notes. ‘I think we can definitely go at full swing next year to win the championship.’

Dale remains very positive about the Earl Bamber Motorsport Team as well as his car, saying that he's really enjoyed the whole team’s ‘very straight-up’ approach – even though in the first year with a new team, it’s always a learning process.

‘I think you really need to spend a year finding your feet with everybody,’ he said. ‘I’ve really enjoyed that, and that’s what I think brings consistency for the following year.’ With such solid groundwork laid for the 2023 season, Dale and his team have promising times ahead. •

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