A tough day in the Top End for the Team with the crew needing to replace an engine in under two hours to get Car 2 back on track for the final race of the day.

It was a strong start to the weekend for Car 2 with Woody topping the first practice session, opting to use the SuperSoft tyre out of his ‘rookie’ allocation whilst the rest of the field ran on the Soft tyre.

Practice 2 saw Woody near the top of the time sheets again whilst Chaz took a different direction in set-up from Car 2 which didn’t pay dividends so changed the set-up overnight.

Both cars rolled out fast for Qualifying Race 17, Ryan put together a strong lap setting the fourth fastest lap, whilst Chaz ran wide on his green tyre run in the final session so would start P10 for the first race.

The second qualifying session was on the SuperSoft tyre which saw the cars not as competitive as the first session with Ryan starting P11 for Race 18 and Chaz P23.

Race 16

Chaz: 6th
Ryan: DNF

A strong start off the line for Chaz who moved up to P9 whilst Ryan got boxed in the first corner dropping to P7.

On the opening lap a safety car was called from an incident with Golding and Evans. During the safety car there was liquid leaking from the Mobil 1 Truck Assist Racing No. 2 but when the green flag was waved to restart the race the engine failed with the car coming to a slow stop, ending Ryan’s race before it started.

It would be a tight turnaround to get the engine replaced with an hour and a half between the races, the crew working on Car 2 whilst Car 25 was racing, keeping an ear out for the call to go in the lane.

Running a long first stint, Chaz was the last of the leaders to pit, ready to pass a lot of cars he took two tyres on the loaded side, coming out effectively P9 in a bunched up chain, picking up two cars on the first lap out.

Towards the end of the stint, the Mobil 1 Optus Racing No. 25 worked up to P6, on the rear bumper fighting for P5 for the final few laps but ultimately ran out of time.

Race 18

Ryan: 9th
Chaz: 17th

Chaz got off to another strong start, launching well off the line and gaining two positions immediately. He continued to make solid moves in the opening laps, climbing further up the field.

Ryan also had a clean opening stint, positioning the Mobil 1 Truck Assist No. 2 smartly and gradually ticking off cars to work his way back into the top 10.

Chaz was one of the first to pit, taking two rear tyres. Given the tyre degradation we’d seen earlier in the day, it would be key to manage this set the remainder of the race – the team was hoping to take advantage of the undercut.

With 19 laps to go, Ryan came into the lane to take four tyres, hungry to move forward while other cars ahead were struggling on older rubber.

Sitting in P8, Ryan was under pressure from Will Brown behind, being forced to run on the dirty part of the track, Car 2 ran wide off the track and dropped back to P10. However the following lap, Cam Waters made the same mistake, allowing Ryan to move up to P9.

It was a tough final stint for Chaz, defending against cars on fresher tyres. He eventually dropped to P17 – a tough outcome, but when you start deep in the field, taking a strategic gamble can work wonders.

With two laps to go, Reynolds was spun and unable to move his car, so the safety car was called the race finished under safety car conditions.

Not the results we came into the weekend hoping for but the crew can hold their heads up high. A huge thank you to everyone for all of their hard work today, they never gave up and managed to complete the fastest engine change in the Gen 3 era - just under two hours.

Ryan Wood

“Yeah, not how we wanted the first race to go today, I think the race car was going to be quick but we couldn’t show it as our race was over pretty much before it started.

“But, first of all, a huge thank you to the entire team for getting the engine changed between races, bunch of legends.

“We have definitely made some gains on our qualifying car this weekend, I put my hand up for making a mistake on my green lap for the second race, we had more than P11 for that one.

“Although our finishing position for Race 18 doesn’t show it, we had an awesome race car today, had some good battles but made a mistake towards the end of the race which cost us a few spots.”

Chaz Mostert

“A pretty tough day for us today, we didn’t qualify up the front which made racing pretty hard.

“Awesome stops from the crew today, this has been a big focus point for us and the hard work is paying off.

“We will put our heads together tonight and make sure we have a stronger package tomorrow.”