Wood rapid in mixed Bathurst opener for WAU
WAU is experiencing pleasure and pain as Ryan Wood and Chaz Mostert have started the 2025 Bathurst 1000 in contrasting ways.
Wood dominated the opening practice session of the 2025 Great Race, recording a scorching 2:05.1029.
This benchmark was a comfortable 0.4236s clear of the rest of the field, fronted by Anton De Pasquale.
It is a further eight-tenths to the third-placed rookie Kai Allen, who edged out teammate Matt Payne and Broc Feeney.
While WAU can be encouraged by the speed of the #2, there was significant pain on the other side of the garage.
Mostert was restricted to just six laps as a lock-up sent him spearing into the Griffins Bend tyres head-on hard.
“I just went slightly later than the run before, but for whatever reason, the brake would not release,” Mostert said.
“It was a small lock and I just felt like I skated. In that situation, you try to go down the gears and wash off as much speed as possible.
“I don’t know if I found a random crack of water in the line and just took no speed off. The wall did its job and I feel fine
“I am hoping we are pretty lucky. I didn’t feel too much of the shunt at all, which is hopefully a good thing for the engine bay back.
“Sadly, it is a lot of work for the team they don’t need at this time of the weekend.”
The excitement of seeing Supercars back at Mount Panorama did not last long as the reds were waved within minutes due to a timing issue.
It is far from the first time in 2025 that timing gremlins have brought Supercars to a halt.
Only five cars had enough time to record a lap, where the only significant moment was Brown finding the grass going through Skyline.
The session resumed after 10 minutes and the full field hit a dry track.
While the Triple Eight teammates could only get into the 2m07’s, Wood was well clear of the rest.
In his first lap of the weekend, Wood was the first to record a 2m06s time of the weekend.
Impressively, his 2:06.3767 was almost a second faster than the fastest Practice 1 time last year.
It was not until the following laps that the likes of Mostert, Feeney and Allen joined him, but they were more than two tenths away.
The earlier red gave Team 18 a chance to work on the “long pedal” Reynolds experienced on his out lap in the #20, but that car was fast early, being the leading Camaro after the opening run.
Numerous co-drivers enjoyed early laps across the first half of the session with Perkins the fastest in 12th.
The first driver to be beaten by the Mountain was a big name in Mostert.
The “Mozzie” was fast, setting the third fastest time, but “locked the fronts” and skidded significantly hard into the Griffins Bend tyre barrier, having never looked like making the corner.
With the #25 Mustang buried in the tyres, it’s session was over.
To run salt into the wounds, the damaged bonnet almost flew off as the tow truck went through The Chase.
The session resumed with 19 minutes left on the clock and Payne fired the opening statement, putting the #100 Mustang into the top three for the first time this weekend.
Feeney found more speed, being the first to not only demote Wood, but also record a 2m05s time at the 56 minute mark.
He found an extra four-tenths to land a 2:05.9879.
However, this would be no match for flying Kiwi Wood.
He again lit up the timesheets, pulling six tenths clear of the field with a 2:05.3199.
This figure immediately improved as Wood pressed on and found an extra two tenths.
BUY AUTO ACTION PREMIUM – YOUR GUIDE TO THE GREAT RACE AND MORE
Another youngster pushing hard was Murray as he pushed the #99 Erebus Camaro into the top three.
But he was soon knocked out by the Grove Racing teammates, who found some late speed.
Rookie Allen led the charge ahead of Payne, but they were still eight-tenths away.
Payne threatened to go faster and set a purple first sector on his following lap, but backed out.
De Pasquale was desperate to take the fight to the Fords and did just that.
The Team 18 driver pumped out personal best laps in the final five minutes and secured best of the rest honours.
The chain of late fast laps meant he halved Wood’s lead from eight-tenths to four.
He was the only driver who could get close to the Kiwi.
While three of the top four were Fords, the remainder of the top 10 were all Camaros with Erebus, Triple Eight and BJR also showing speed.
WAU faces a race against the clock to get the #25 fixed before the co-driver-only session at 16.50 AEDT.
Image: Peter Norton Epic Sports Photography
2025 Bathurst 1000 Practice 1 results
1: R. Wood/J. Ojeda 2:05.1029
2: A. De Pasquale/H. Jones +0.4236
3: K. Allen/D. Wood +0.8132
4: M. Payne/G. Tander +0.8333
5: B. Feeney/J. Whincup +0.8850
6: C. Murray/J. Stewart +0.9655
7: W. Brown/S. Pye +0.9980
8: A. Heimgartner/D. Fraser +0.1054
9: D. Reynolds/L. Holdsworth +1.1618
10: J. Le Brocq/J. Hughes +1.2139
11: A. Cameron/Z. Best +1.2322
12: M. Jones/J. Boys +1.2886
13: J. Golding/D. Russell +1.4307
14: R. Stanaway/N. Morris +1.4439
15: C. Mostert/F. Coulthard +1.4879
16: W. Davison/T. D’Alberto +1.4886
17: T. Randle/J. Moffat +1.5137
18: R. Gray/L. Dalton +1.5397
19: C. Hill/C. McLeod +1.6234
20: B. Kostecki/T. Hazelwood +1.7038
21: C. Waters/M. Winterbottom +1.7385
22: J. Courtney/J. Perkins +1.8678
23: N. Percat/T. Slade +1.9320
24: B. Fullwood/B. Vaughan +2.0236
25: C. Crick/A. Seton +2.2061
26: J. Evans/J. Smith +2.3462
27: Z. Bates/C. Lowndes +2.4830
Read the new issue of Auto Action Digital HERE
Buy the new issue of Auto Action Premium HERE
Don’t forget the print edition of Auto Action available via subscription here or you can purchase a copy of the latest issue from one of our outlets here.
