Back-to-back wins for Cooper Cutts on Saturday in Sydney

Cooper Cutts won both of Saturday’s races during Round 2 of the 2025 First Focus Radical Cup Australia and claimed his second pole position of the season at Sydney Motorsport Park this morning. 

Cutts wasted no time in qualifying, recording a series of flying laps in rapid-fire succession, quickly eclipsing his fastest lap from Friday’s practice.

In race one, Cutts commanded the field in the #16 Arise Racing XXR from the start with Paddon unsuccessfully trying to get around the outside of the pole-sitter through turns one and two. In what is quickly becoming a signature move for the pair, running side-by-side off the start line, Paddon didn’t make it easy for Cutts to keep the lead with both cars jostling for position. Cutts would go on to stretch a five-second lead over second-place Paddon by the end of the 25-minute sprint race. 

First Focus Radical Cup Australia Radical rookie Ruairdah Avern made up five places on the opening lap, jumping from eighth to third, setting a very comfortable margin back to fourth-placed Brad Russell to round out the Race 1 podium. 

Russell was the first of the AM class drivers to cross the line – also again in Race 2 – , with a battle for fifth place between Mark Brame and Nick Kelly raging behind. The fourth-place result was a fantastic effort for Russell, who missed Practice 3 yesterday after coming into contact with a concrete wall in an earlier session. 

Kelly was able to fend off Brame to cross the line next in fifth, but a 5-second penalty resulted in a 7th place result, handing fifth to Brame. Chris Reindler started from the back of the pack to finish sixth and was in his own battle with Terry Knowles, with the latter spinning late in the race, dropping him out of the top 10.

Next across the line were Peter Clare and Zig Fuhrmeister, who finished eighth and ninth. Both the #47 of Clare and #216 of Fuhrmeister had a wild moment when they went wide at Turn 7 on lap one in a synchronised spin, thankfully with no contact or damage to either car. Warwick Morris rounded out the top 10.

The shadows were already starting to lengthen with sunset not far away at the start of Race 2, adding an extra layer of complexity at the start where all eyes were on Brabham Straight with Paddon again trying to take the long way around Cutts with slight contact between the two. 

While the front runners got cleanly away, the #45 of Josh Hunt, who started in third, wasn’t so lucky as the tightly packed field rounded Turn 2, spinning off into the grass and dropping down into 14th, before slicing and dicing his way through the field to finish an impressive fifth.

After an impressive showing here last year, Knowles was likewise unlucky in the opening lap with front splitter damage and a punctured left front tyre ending his day early. 

After starting the race in fifth, Bryce Moore climbed into third after a brief back-and-forth with Mark Brame to round out the race three podium. Brame did well to hold on to fourth for most of the race until a charging Tim Edgell got around the Focus Motorsport racer.

Brame crossed the line in sixth, but a 10-second penalty relegated him to eighth and elevated Avern and Russell to sixth and seventh, with Kelly ninth and Mark Cirillo 10th. 

Round 2 of the 2025 First Focus Radical Cup Australia concludes tomorrow (Sunday, 4 May) with two more sprint races at 9.10am and 1.15pm. Both races will be broadcast on 7plus, while international audiences will be able to watch via the Radical Motorsport YouTube Channel.