The Hunter River Times

Denman’s Rylan Gray has finished third for the round at the Supercars Adelaide 500.

The Tickford Racing rookie made his Dunlop Super3 Series debut at the street circuit on November 23-26.

The 17-year-old finished third in the first practice on day one, just four seconds behind the fastest car before he came to an even closer one second within the first-place finisher in the second practice session. 

Friday proved to be a much drier day on the track with the two qualifying sessions to determine starting positions for the weekend. Gray qualified fourth in his class for race one with a time of 1:21.438, and an even faster time of 1:20.442 seeing him start second in class for race two.

“It was kind of interesting that no-one in the field had done dry laps that weekend, so it was a bit of an even playing field. We went back to the truck and went over dry footage from when they last raced there and I think that really helped me to prepare for the session,” Rylan told The Hunter River Times of the change in conditions.

While his first race on Saturday in a Supercar was a success, coming home second, it wasn’t without experiencing some of the hairy moments that come with a street circuit.

“It was an exciting race to say the least as there was a lot going on, there was a few incidents ahead where we were lucky enough to get through a few small gaps,” he shared.

“I had a good race I thought as we came home second, we just had to stay clean and let others do what they do.”

Sunday’s race was looking to have equally as good of a result, until contact from behind took him from challenging for second in class, to finishing fourth.

“I thought it was a pretty positive weekend, we learned a lot and I experienced quite a bit,” Rylan said of his run at a circuit many don’t get to experience.

“It was great to work with such a professional team that’s been doing it for so long and it was good to get amongst it and just to see what it’s like behind the scenes as well, what a lot of people don’t get to see.”

Rylan is grateful to have Muswellbrook Steel Supplies, Koan Solutions, Crete and Works Co and MLH Solutions come on board as sponsors for the round, joining Bilstein and On The Pace who have been supporting his career to date.

The 2024 Dunlop Series will commence at the Bathurst SuperFest on February 23-25.

• BY JESS ROUSE AND JEM ANSHAW