Cutts tops Friday practice as title fight heats up at The Bend

THE FINAL round of the 2025 First Focus Radical Cup Australia season got underway at The Bend Motorsport Park on Friday, with series leader Cooper Cutts setting the pace across three practice sessions.

Cutts (#16 Arise Racing / Terry Cutts Racing XXR), who heads into the weekend holding the points advantage over defending champion Peter Paddon (#1 First Focus / GWR XXR), set down the fastest lap of the day in Practice 2 with a 1m49.5748s. The pair traded fastest lap times across all three outings, but it was the Arise Racing / Terry Cutts Racing driver who emerged on top, upping the ante in the already intense title fight that will be decided across two enduro races this weekend.

Zig Fuhrmeister (#216 Elec Motorsport XXR) impressed in P3 overall with his Practice 2 effort, also leading the AM class. Rookie Ruari Avern (#22 Arise Racing SR3) again showed strong pace to secure P4, while the #28 Lance East Exotics XX entry of Chris Reindler and Bryce Moore closed the day in P5.

Ibby Hadeed (#222 GWR Australia XX) set his fastest lap in Practice 3, finishing the day P6 overall, just ahead of AM rivals Terry Knowles (#68 Ausnets XXR) and Brad Russell (#18 Arise Racing / Liftoff Solutions XXR), with Dave Allan / Mark Cirillo (#527 Arise Racing RSX) in P9.

Seventeen-year-old debutant Dylan Canto capped off his first First Focus Radical Cup Australia runs with a top-ten result, trimming seconds from the #8 Edge Motorsport XX’s lap times as the day progressed.

In Practice 1, Paddon set the early benchmark, quickly going 2.4 seconds clear of Avern in second, with Cutts a further five seconds adrift on his opening lap. As the session settled, Cutts closed in, the pair split by less than a second at the halfway point.

Paddon held the advantage until the final moments, when Cutts produced a late flyer to claim P1 by just 0.1879s. Avern finished third, while Masters runner Knowles led the AM class in fourth ahead of Allan and Russell. Hadeed and Jim Hernandez also featured strongly in the AM queue.

Practice 2 saw Cutts set the first representative lap of 1m53.6423s before an answering 1m51.1575s from Paddon knocked almost 2.5s off at the top of the sheet. Cutts then became the only driver to dip into the 1m40s across the day as the series points leader continued to better his time, again claiming P1 with a 1m49.5748s, seven-tenths over Paddon.

Times across the board were quicker in the second session, which saw Zig Fuhrmeister out on track for the first time this weekend. The Queenslander split the difference between Cutts and Paddon at the pointy end for most of the 20-minute outing and led the AM class home in P3 overall. Avern came home P4, while Hadeed jumped from P8 to P5 between sessions. Rookie Dylan Canto also made gains, trimming nearly two seconds from his best lap time in the previous session.

In Practice 3, Paddon again lit up in purple on the first lap, a full three seconds clear of Cutts, before the #16 returned serve the next time around. Reindler, who was behind the wheel of the #28, jumped into P3 early on, with Avern and Russell right behind, setting up a West Coast-dominant top five early on.

As the laps ticked over, Paddon, Avern, Reindler, Russell and Hadeed all continued to drop their times, while Canto’s best time of the day saw the 17-year-old as high as P7, before finishing P8. However, Cutts would again prove to be uncatchable, with a late red flag interruption ending the session two minutes early.

The final round of the 2025 First Focus Radical Cup Australia continues Saturday, 6 September, from Shell V-Power Motorsport Park at The Bend as part of GT Festival The Bend. Watch both Qualifying (10.10am ACST) and Race 1 (3.40pm ACST) live on 7plus on Saturday.