Caitlin_Wood

Caitlin Wood

Caitlin Wood

Australian racing driver

Caitlin Wood (born 15 January 1997 in Maitland, New South Wales) is an Australian female racing driver who last competed in the 2021 W Series.[1]

Quick Facts Nationality, Born ...

Biography

Hailing from Tenambit in the New South Wales Hunter Valley, Wood began her professional motorsport career in 2013 in a state-level Formula Ford championship. She ended her debut in car racing 5th out of 7 in the championship. She subsequently moved up to the inaugural Australian Formula Ford Championship in 2015, however she struggled to 21st in the championship with only three points finishes. The Australian Formula 4 Championship would become the new national feeder series in Australia, and Wood contested a three-event part-time schedule – eventually finishing 13th in the championship before setting her sights on Europe.[2]

Wood was accepted into Reiter Engineering's Young Stars program in early 2016, and was entered into the GT4 European Series.[3] She finished 17th in the championship despite missing the round at Silverstone.[4] Reiter promoted Wood to their Blancpain Sprint Series program for 2017 alongside Finnish driver Marko Helistekangas, although the duo only contested the first round before being promoted again to the Blancpain Endurance Series where they were joined by Tomáš Enge.[5][6] Due to budget constraints, the team only contested the 1000km of Paul Ricard and 3 Hours of Barcelona, and failed to score any points. Wood then switched to Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe for 2018, joining British team MTech.[7] She contested the opening two rounds at Monza and Silverstone, before missing the next two events after she broke her ankle in training. She returned for the fifth round at the Nürburgring, scoring a best result of sixth before running out of funding; she then remained in the United Kingdom for the rest of the year working as a driver coach.[8]

Wood applied for the W Series evaluation in 2019, and qualified as one of the seasons' 18 permanent drivers.[9] She scored a point with a 10th place in the season opener at the Hockenheim round, before suffering a run of misfortune in the following races; having gone off-track in a points-scoring position at Zolder, damaging her suspension in qualifying at Misano that put her at the back of the grid for the race, and a comeback drive from clutch issues at the Norisring saw her only finish 11th. Wood finished 5th place at the Assen round, scoring her best result for the series.[10] Despite this, she missed the automatic invitation to the 2020 season by a single point after another 11th-place finish at Brands Hatch.[11]

Racing record

Career summary

More information Season, Series ...

* Season still in progress.

Bathurst 12 Hours results

More information Year, Team ...

Complete W Series results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

More information Year, Team ...

* Season still in progress.

References

  1. [1]
    "Caitlin Wood – W Series". W Series. Archived from the original on 5 April 2019. Retrieved 16 April 2019.
  2. [2]
    "Caitlin Wood set for Formula 4 debut". Speedcafe. Retrieved 7 September 2015.
  3. [3]
    "Wood impresses in European GT4". Speedcafe. Retrieved 22 July 2016.
  4. [4]
    "Tenambit car racer Caitlin Wood competing in European GT4 Championship in the Reiter Young Stars Series for Reiter Engineering". Maitland Mercury. Retrieved 22 June 2016.
  5. [5]
    "Newcastle Supercars: Caitlin Wood enjoys bumpy ride in first GT series". Newcastle Herald. Retrieved 17 May 2017.
  6. [6]
    "Caitlin Wood switches to Blancpain Endurance Series". Speedcafe. Retrieved 18 May 2017.
  7. [7]
    "CAITLIN WOOD TO DEBUT IN LAMBORGHINI SUPER TROFEO". Velocity Magazine. Retrieved 17 April 2018.
  8. [8]
    "Wood 'needed' W Series opportunity". Speedcafe. Retrieved 31 March 2019.
  9. [9]
    "W Series announces its driver line-up". W Series. Archived from the original on 2 September 2019. Retrieved 28 March 2019.
  10. [10]
    "Caitlin Wood scores her best W Series result at Assen". Driven Women Magazine. 20 July 2019. Retrieved 22 May 2020.
  11. [11]
    "Chadwick wins inaugural W Series title". Speedcafe. 12 August 2019.
  12. [12]
    "AUSSIE WOOD MAKING AN IMPACT ON AND OFF THE TRACK". Auto Action. 12 April 2024.
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