A mixed bag today for the Team, a great recovery drive for Ryan Wood this afternoon after being spun early in the race.

It’s been a tough start to the weekend for Car 25, being on the back foot on pace since rolling out of the truck whilst Car 2 was further up the field on pace in the two practice sessions.

Two back-to-back qualifying sessions started off our morning, with Chaz starting P19 and Ryan P7 for Race 11 after being spun by Brodie Kosteki late in the session, setting a lap on tyres that weren’t up to temperature.

The second qualifying session was a bit tougher for the Team with Chaz starting P12 and Ryan P19.

Race 11

Ryan Wood: 6th
Chaz Mostert: 15th

As the lights went out for the first race of the weekend, Ryan had a slow start off the line dropping back to P9 with Chaz maintaining position.

Stuck in the battle pack near the rear of the field, Chaz tried to maximise the most he had out of the car but struggled to move forward with the cars ahead making themselves very wide.

The Mobil 1 Truck Assist Racing No. 2 quickly regained the positions lost off the start, the fastest car out there, working up to P7 running the long game in the opening stint.

Ryan came into the lane for two rear tyres with 21 laps to go, the crew executing an awesome pitstop, resetting quickly for Chaz who came in the following lap taking three tyres.

Showing strong pace towards the end of the stint, Ryan continued to be the fastest car on track and worked his way up to P6, running out of laps to collect a top five finish.

Meanwhile, the Mobil 1 Optus Racing No. 25 ultimately didn’t have the pace to move forward in the final stint crossing the line P15.

Race 12

Ryan Wood: 16th
Chaz Mostert: 18th

It would be a tough Race 12 with both cars starting in the middle of the field, it’s a pretty hard track to pass with only seven corners.

With a dark bad luck cloud following Ryan today, he got caught in turn one mess, spinning and being left six seconds behind the back of the pack after the first corner of the first lap.

It would be a long race ahead for the Mobil 1 Truck Assist Racing No. 2, but Ryan had his head down and motivation to move forward with a fast car under him, within five laps he caught the rear of the field.

Meanwhile, for Chaz he was stuck in a battle for 10th with Will Brown in the middle of the pack, swapping positions during the first stint, ultimately being whacked with a five second time penalty for contact which he took during his first stop.

Ryan was the first to pit in the field, opting to take two rear tyres and coming out with clean air in front of him helping him make gains whilst the cars behind were battling, coming out effectively P16 from P23.

With the cars behind Chaz having 20 lap fresher tyres, he couldn’t compete on pace towards the end of the race, dropping down to P18.

A great recovery drive from Ryan, with one of the fastest cars out on the track again but unable to convert the result after the lap one incident.

It’s a clean slate tomorrow, we have qualifying and a 200km race, we will put our heads together to tidy up our qualifying cars before we hit the track at 9.35am AEST.

Ryan Wood

“Had a really speedy race car today so thanks to everyone. Was really good to get a nice haul of points in race 1, but being backwards on the first lap of race 2 meant it was going to be a struggle for the rest of that one.

“We salvaged what we could get, but the positive from it all was that the car looked after the tyre really well and we were strong late, so plenty to look forward to tomorrow.”

Chaz Mostert

“Really tough day that’s for sure, we are on the back foot here, but not giving up yet.

“We reset tomorrow morning so we will have another swing at it tonight, go through everything and see what we can do tomorrow.”