Bathurst Hour 4: Wood and Ojeda tame the rain
By Thomas Miles
Date posted: 12 October 2025
As the mountain produces more madness, Ryan Wood has emerged as the leader of the Bathurst 1000 after a mighty effort from Jayden Ojeda.
Ojeda put in one of the drives of the day, pulling 20s on the field across a wet fourth hour.
Now with Wood behind the wheel to the end, the #2 WAU Mustang is in a strong spot, leading surprise packets Aaron Cameron and Zak Best by 10s.
A mighty drive by rookie Jobe Stewart has put the #99 ahead of James Golding.
Despite the all-green hour, the drama has not dropped whatsoever, with things further unfolding for DJR.
Brodie Kostecki and Todd Hazelwood now sit down in 15th after serving a drive-through penalty for punting Kai Allen at hell Corner.
After the field was shaken up as teams bounced back and forth between wets and slicks, Russell emerged in front and made the most of it.
The PremiAir veteran built a sizable lead as the race finally settled down amid the continual rainfall.
Tander was second, but he struggled in the conditions against the youngsters.
Both Ojeda and Best went past to knock him off the podium before both the Erebus rookies knocked the #100 Mustang out of the top five.
Lowndes was among the leading group, but ran wide at Hell Corner and fell down to 18th.
They were far from the only ones caught out in the tough conditions.
Whincup was lucky to get away with a moment at Griffin’s Bend, as was Hazelwood, who had to shortcut the Esses, while wildcard rookie Gray went straight on at Hell Corner.
By Lap 84 Russell’s 8s lead had been slashed to nothing by Ojeda with the PremiAir driver losing tyre temperature and pressure.
The WAU co-driver was flying in the soaked conditions and took the lead at Griffin’s Bend.
Best was also on the move and picked off the PremiAir driver a lap later to drop the #31 to third.
In more good news for Ford fans, Hazelwood was on the march and forced the #38 back into the top 10.
He progressed as high as sixth before the round of stops started.
After a head-turning stint, Best pitted from second on Lap 87.
Hughes had also impressed, passing Russell before boxing.
This move paid off for Erebus as they kept Hughes in the car with track position ahead of Cameron and Golding, who had resumed the #3 v #31 battle.
Stewart also stayed in the car and found himself having some spooky moments through the Cutting side by side with Cameron and Golding.
Towards the end of the hour, Hazelwood found himself battling with the Bulls again with Pye and Whincup on his tail.
They were on the same strategy as leader Ojeda as the top three all boxed on Lap 94.
Due to DJR changing a battery, Hazelwood had a slow stop and lost 10s to Brown, who rejoined fourth, nine spots ahead of the #38.
Kostecki soon found trouble in the traffic and punted Allen off the road having struggled to stop it at Hell Corner.
With the Grove Racing driver suffering significant rear end damage, Kostecki was slapped with a drive-through penalty
Thanks to Ojeda’s mighty effort, Wood had an 8s advantage over Feeney and Cameron.
But amazingly, Feeney could not stop rookies Cameron and Stewart from going by.
With most of the main drivers in until the finish, who knows what the following chapters will entail?
Bathurst Hour #1
Bathurst Hour #2
Bathurst Hour #3 report
Bathurst 1000 Hour 4 leaderboard
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