Wood clings on to maiden win in nail-biter

Ryan Wood could not hold back the tears as he resisted the reigning champion to take a memorable maiden Supercars win in the Perth Super440 opener.

Wood, 21, showed maturity beyond his years as he held off a big challenge by Will Brown, who was hunting him down on fresh tyres.

Brown was breathing down his neck in the closing laps as the reigning champion had four tyres that were four laps fresher than Wood’s two.

But the Walkinshaw Andretti United youngster held on by six tenths to write more Wanneroo history for himself as he has also scored his first Super2 win, Supercars pole and now race win.

Chaz Mostert led early, but got overwhelmed by his younger teammate in the opening stint and was hurt by a slow stop, but used four fresher tyres to reel in Feeney and Kostecki to salvage a podium.

But understandably, all the attention surrounded Wood as he struggled to keep in the emotions as a Supercars winner.

“I am pretty emotional to be honest,” Wood said.

“My parents have sacrificed a lot to get me here and to achieve my lifelong dream does not feel real.

“So stoked for our whole team and kudos to the engineering group for coaching me through that race.

“I cannot believe it. I just want to thank the Walkinshaw family for showing their faith in me.”

Despite Wood having the better launch and launching a crack on the outside, Mostert was able to prevail by holding tight on the inside line.

Wood was able to slot in and nail down the WAU 1-2, while Feeney had the best start of the leaders, but had nowhere to go.

Despite being blocked out of the battle for the lead, Feeney still did enough to snare third from Kostecki.

There was no change for the remainder of the top 10 as Fullwood and Golding battled hard for ninth.

The big victim of the opening lap was Cameron, who went off at Turn 5 after some friendly fire from James Courtney.

Things settled down with the WAU teammates pulling a second clear of Feeney.

But there were no team orders at play as Wood launched an attack on his experienced rival on Lap 10.

Wood was hungry for the lead and made a big dive at the final corner.

The WAU teammates Chaz Mostert and Ryan Wood fought hard from the start. Image: Peter Norton

Despite not quite getting the nose in front at the apex, Mostert gave him enough room to ensure the pair did not make contact to the relief of everyone in the WAU garage.

As a result, Wood was able to muscle his way into the lead and take charge of the remainder of the opening stint.

However, it did bring Feeney into play with less than a second covering the top three, while Kostecki was the best part of 2s away.

Brown also used the final corner as an attacking option, catching Payne off guard and stealing fifth place.

The stops started on Lap 21 with Feeney looking for the undercut with rears only.

It made a difference as he was all over the back of Wood when he rejoined from the lane a lap later.

Feeney was right under Wood’s wing and thought about looks at Turns 4, 6 and 7, but could not quite get close enough as the Kiwi held on with cold tyres on the working side.

Brown, Payne and Kostecki all changed four tyres, but lost around 6s on the leaders.

The Grove Racing driver was the big loser with his stop costing around 11s, around double his rivals.

Mostert waited until Lap 27 to be serviced and also changed all four tyres.

But a slow right-hand side change cost him dearly as the #25 fell from the lead to fifth in the train.

With 22 laps left Wood was now in the box seat to secure a dream win, but had Feeney just half a second behind.

The top two were 4s clear of Brown, Kostecki and Mostert battling for the minors, but that gap was closing.

Determined to regain the lost time on fresher rubber, Mostert set a string of fastest laps and caught Kostecki.

He made a dive at the final corner, but could not make it stick as Kostecki performed the crisscross and reclaimed the spot after some mirror rubbing heading to Turn 1.

The contest carried on until Kolb Corner where Mostert had the final say by swinging down the inside and snaring fourth.

Mostert was not the only four-tyre runner to be inserting himself in the race with Brown slashing the deficit to the top two to less than a second with 13 laps left.

Due to Feeney dropping a second adrift of Wood and Brown having the tyre advantage, the #88 allowed the reigning champion to come through, coming out of the “Bowl.”

Now the equation was simple, Brown on four fresh tyres had 12 laps to slash 1.4s and catch Wood, who only had fresh tyres on the working left-hand side.

Will Brown rose from sixth to second, but just fell short. Image: Peter Norton

Mostert was also on the march and performed the same move on Feeney to knock him off the podium despite the #88 offering much more of a fight.

Wood was fighting hard and ensured it was not until Lap 43 when Brown came within a second of him.

By Lap 46 that gap was half a second, but Wood found a response with three to go where he finally clawed back some time when it mattered.

It gave him just enough breathing space to enter the final two laps with a couple of car lengths up his sleeve.

Despite the reigning champion breathing down his neck in a tense run to the flag, Wood held on to get a famous first win.

Mostert also closed into be third ahead of Feeney and Kostecki.

Payne regained ground he lost during the pits to salvage sixth ahead of Waters and Fullwood.

Hill used the undercut to be one of the biggest movers and rise up to ninth ahead of Randle, who knocked Allen out of the top 10 at the death.

Image: Peter Norton Epic Sports Photography

Results Race 14 50 Laps Wanneroo

Pos Driver Team Laps Time

1 Ryan Wood WAU 50 47:18.8672 +1

2 Will Brown Triple Eight 50 +0.6129 +4

3 Chaz Mostert WAU 50 +3.3897 -2

4 Broc Feeney Triple Eight 50 +6.2672 –

5 Brodie Kostecki DJR 50 +9.4920 -2

6 Matt Payne Grove Racing 50 +11.3860 -1

7 Cameron Waters Tickford 50 +18.0747 –

8 Bryce Fullwood BJR 50 +20.1776 +1

9 Cameron Hill MSR 50 +21.4959 +4

10 Thomas Randle Tickford 50 +22.0782 +4

11 Kai Allen Grove Racing 50 +24.2257 -3

12 Nick Percat MSR 50 +26.4256 -1

13 James Golding PremiAir 50 +26.9117 -3

14 Will Davison DJR 50 +29.7631 +1

15 Jack Le Brocq Erebus 50 +30.5346 +2

16 David Reynolds Team 18 50 +31.5722 -4

17 James Courtney BRT 50 +32.3845 +1

18 Jaxon Evans BJR 50 +32.8841 +1

19 Anton De Pasquale Team 18 50 +33.8193 -3

20 Cooper Murray Erebus 50 +35.3702 +3

21 Andre Heimgartner BJR 50 +36.0385 -1

22 Macauley Jones BJR 50 +39.4968 -1

23 Lochie Dalton Tickford 50 +41.1311 +2

24 Richie Stanaway PremiAir 50 +44.9594 –

25 Aaron Cameron BRT 49 +1 Lap -3

Supercars Perth Super440 (all times AEST)

Practice 1: 1: Jaxon Evans 55.0864 2: Ryan Wood +0.3596 3: Broc Feeney +0.3948

Practice 2: 1: Matt Payne 54.3903 2: Anton De Pasquale +0.0856 3: Thomas Randle +0.2214

R14 Qualifying: 1 Chaz Mostert 53.6858 2 Ryan Wood +0.0839 3 Brodie Kostecki +0.0961

R15 Qualifying: 1 Ryan Wood 53.8966 2 Cameron Waters +0.2578 3 Broc Feeney +0.3017

Race 14 (50 laps): Sat 14.55

Race 15 (50 laps): Sat 18.10

R16 Qualifying: Sun 13.00-13.30

Top 10 Shootout: Sun 15.05-15.35

Race 16 (83 laps): Sun 17.15

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