Two podiums from two races for Ryan Wood, not a bad effort for his first time at Queensland Raceway in a Supercar.

The morning kicked off with qualifying for Race 23 and 24. Race 23 saw both Ryan and Chaz have solid pace which followed on from Practice earlier in the weekend, locking in P3 and P4.

A storm rolled in just as the second part of qualifying for Race 24 started, Ryan did a mega job to finish his lap on slicks in torrential rain, securing a front row start. Whilst Chaz caught the bad end of the stick, not setting a lap on slicks and having to come into the lane for wets to set a lap, lining up P9.

Race 23

Ryan: 3rd
Chaz: 25th

The skies cleared for the first race of the day as the field rolled out of pit lane.

Unfortunately, Chaz’s race ended before it began when his bake line split, and his brake pedal went to the floor. He was forced to return to the garage as the green flag waved, rejoining the race three laps down.

Ryan held position in the opening laps, showing strong pace and staying in close proximity with the leaders. In the opening stint, Ryan kept his head down and maintained position until he came into the lane, the first of the front runners to do so.

The fight for the final spot on the position intensified in the closing laps, with Ryan on the rear bar of Kai in third, while Will – on four fresh tyres compared to their two – was rapidly closing in on both of them.

With three laps remaining and Will half a second behind Ryan, David Reynolds became stuck in the gravel trap, deploying the safety car. As the clock wound down, the car could not be recovered in time, and the race ended under caution – securing Ryan a well-earned trophy.

It was a tough race for Chaz, bringing the Mobil 1 Optus Racing No. 25 home in P25.

Race 24

Ryan: 3rd
Chaz: 7th

It was a slow start off the line for the Mobil 1 Truck Assist Racing No. 2, dropping to P3, while Chaz made up one position to P8 before chaos unfolded in the mid-pack, with six cars coming into the lane sustaining damage.

In the opening stint, Chaz climbed to P6 with a series of aggressive and well-timed passes, making the most of each opportunity.

Managing his tyres, Ryan maintained a steady gap between himself and Will Brown ahead, sitting comfortably in P3, building a gap between the cars behind him.

After the pit cycle, Ryan emerged effectively P5 and was determined to secure back to back podium finishes. On fresher tyres and with 10 laps remaining, he made a decisive move down the inside of Anton De Pasquale to claim third place off him.

In the final stint, Chaz – rejoining effectively in P11 – capitalized on his tyre advantage to charge forward. At a circuit with limited passing opportunities, he executed several impressive moves to finish P7.

Overall, a solid day for Ryan, doubling his career Supercars podium tally and moving up to P8 in the championship standings.

Tomorrow, we are back on the Soft tyre which we know we are strong on, with some small tweaks tonight, we are ready to go out swinging tomorrow.

Ryan Wood

“A double podium today, can’t complain about that, doubling the amount of podiums I’ve had in one day isn’t too shabby.

“Really proud of the team today, we have really been focusing on our qualifying car and it’s been paying off.

“We have been ticking lots of boxes this weekend so far, we’ve collected a solid amount of points and we are up to P8 in the standings, but there is still a big race tomorrow and plenty more points to play for.”

Chaz Mostert

“I don’t know what black cat I ran over, but I am glad the brake problem happened on the formation lap rather than the start line.

“In the second race we had pretty good pace, we got caught in a bit of traffic but made a few passes and finished two positions from where we started.

“We get to have another go tomorrow, I’m sure Scaff has some magic tricks up his sleeve he will chuck in the car overnight.”