Bathurst hour 6: Triple Eight trauma sets up granstand finish, heartbreak for Wood

A grandstand finish to the 2025 Bathurst 1000 awaits with James Golding in the lead as Triple Eight crashes and heartbreak to Ryan Wood has brought out a late Safety Car.

With 22 laps left, Golding and PremiAir leads a wet and wild Great Race with equally hungry youngsters behind him.

However, one of the leading contenders, Wood and Jayden Ojeda, will not be part of the fight.

Sitting second during the sixth and most recent Safety Car period, Wood cried “the engine is gone” over the radio as his #2 Mustang coughed to the lane.

It was a rotten bit of luck for the young pairing who had raced so well all day.

This promotes Matt Payne and Cooper Murray as Golding’s nearest rivals for the run home.

The drama follows a dramatic period where both Broc Feeney and Macauley Jones crashed at Forrest’s Elbow and Will Brown careered into the Griffin’s Bend tyres.

At the top of the sixth hour, the race was turned on its head after losing one of the big contenders.

Ojeda led Feeney, but the Triple Eight star was not there for long.

Struggling on cold, wet tyres, Feeney slid head-on into the Forrest’s Elbow tyre barriers.

The loss of the second-place car sparked the Safety Car and shrunk the field with 37 laps to go.

In a small boost for DJR fans, Kostecki returned to the track albeit nine laps down.

The biggest loser was Wood, who saw his precious 10s lead disappear.

After defending the lead as the pioneer across the first lap, the WAU driver left himself open to attack.

Following a grand run out of Griffin’s Bend, Golding made his move at the Cutting and pushed PremiAir into the lead of the Great Race.

Wood tried to fight back going up the hill, but decided to back out of a high-risk response through Sulman Park.

By Conrod Straight, Golding had already pulled a second on his WAU rival.

Further back, Brown tried to line up a move on Allen for fifth, but got it wrong.

The reigning champion locked up and speared into the Grove Racing rookie, taking the pair for a tour of the outfield.

To make matters worse for Allen, he received another tap by Le Brocq at Murray’s Corner, which saw the #26 fall from fifth to 11^th in three corners.

Both Brown and Le Brocq received 5s penalties for those moves.

At least something went right for Allen when Randle speared off at The Chase and gave him back 10^th.

It was a miracle the track stayed green, given that Evans backed it into the concrete at high speed at Sulman Park.

He crawled back to the pits, but with race-ending damage.

However, this only remained the case for three more laps as Triple Eight’s race hit a new low.

Brown lost it on the approach to Griffin’s Bend and careered into the tyres.

Although Brown drove back to the lane with his bonnet hanging by a thread, he left his rear wing behind and a Safety Car was needed.

With 29 laps left, it arrived at a perfect moment for teams to complete their final fuel stops.

Before the yellow, Golding had built a 9s lead, which was enough to retain track position despite needing to take more fuel.

PremiAir changed all four tyres, while WAU only changed the right-hand-side after the Kiwi scraped the wall at The Cutting.

In a potentially Finals-shaping move Tickford released Randle into the path of Jones and received a 5s penalty.

The stoppage ensured the track conditions worsened significantly with rivers starting to appear across the track.

Being the pioneer, these soaked conditions caught out Golding on the Lap 136 restart.

To the disappointment of PremiAir and the elation of WAU, Golding struggled to get it stopped and ran wide, gifting the lead to Wood.

Payne held down third, while Murray stole fourth from Reynolds with a bold dive at The Chase.

Only two laps were possible before the conditions understandably created another Safety Car.

Jones became the latest victim of Forrest’s Elbow, being served into the fence by Stanaway.

To add further drama, Wood speared off at The Chase, which gave the lead back to Golding seconds before the Safety Car was called.

But his car then gave up the ghost under Safety Car.

With just one member of the top 10 a previous Bathurst winner, legacies are on the line at the Mountain.

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