Cutts quickest in Friday practice at Sandown

The penultimate round of the 2025 First Focus Radical Cup Australia season opened with Cooper Cutts setting the overall pace in Friday’s three practice sessions at Sandown Raceway. 

Despite being quickest in the first two sessions, Peter Paddon – along with fellow title protagonist Cutts – waited until the final session of the day to take turns delivering their best lap times. 

While Paddon pushed to make it three from three, Cutts' 1m11.6401s flier in the final moments of Practice 3 got the job done. Paddon’s fastest lap (1m12.2233s) in Practice 3, saw the current champion take P2 overall, while Chris Reindler and Bryce Moore’s Practice 1 effort of 1m12.7906s saw the WA Lance East Exotics duo in P3 for the day.

P4 overall and quickest of the AM class drivers was Terry Knowles, while Arise Racing’s Ruari Avern’s Practice 3 effort resulted in P5. This means that of the top five drivers today, only Paddon has Radical Sportscar experience at Sandown Raceway.

Mason Harvey was P6 in his first Radical laps in the national series, with Peter Clare, Brad Russell, Mark Cirillo, and Stephen Champion rounding out the top 10. Jim Hernandez placed P11 overall, with Sue Hughes in P12.

Practice 1 looked to belong to Bryce Moore, who set the first representative lap early on and then continued to get quicker as the 20-minute clock counted down. The #28 Lance East Exotics co-pilot re-set the fastest lap of the session five more times, before just being pipped by Peter Paddon’s (1m12.7888s) in the final moments. 

Moore’s 1m12.7906s was more than enough for P2, while a speedy Knowles was P3 in the #68 Ausnets XXR. Radical newcomer Mason Harvey was very much in the mix in P4 racing with the Arise squad this weekend, while title contender Cooper Cutts rounded out the top five in the briefly red-flagged session for a car that found its way off the track. 

Times got faster in Practice 2, this time with Paddon leading the pack from start to finish, more than three-tenths of a second faster than Practice 1. Cutts leap-frogged from P5 to P2 on the road as the clock ran out, just .1106s shy of his title rival. Knowles snuck around Chris Reindler by .0474s for P3, while the West Aussie held on for P4 aboard the #28. Harvey was again running comfortably with the front runners in P5 0.4423s away from Paddon. 

Mark Cirillo, meanwhile, recovered from spending Practice 1 in pit lane, setting the sixth fastest time.

By Practice 3, Cutts and Paddon both took turns lighting up the timing sheet in purple, while the majority of the field also waited until the final session to set their fastest laps. Avern showed some of the biggest improvements across the day, setting a 1m12.8696s, shaving more than 3.5 seconds off of his Practice 1 time, while Hernandez also improved by more than three seconds from Practice 1. Champion and Clare likewise improved across the day, finding two and two and a half seconds of pace respectively as the day unfolded. 

Round four of the 2025 First Focus Radical Cup Australia continues on Saturday as part of the GT Festival Sandown with Qualifying and two 25-minute sprint races across the day. The field rolls out for Qualifying at 9.10am, followed by Race 1 at 12.40pm and Race 2 at 4.25pm. Qualifying and all four races will be broadcast live on 7+, while Race 2 will also air on 7mate.