Heartbroken. The Mountain didn’t choose us this year, from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows, the team never gave up.

It wasn’t the way we wanted to start the weekend with the Mobil 1 Optus Racing No. 25 in the fence during Practice 1, returning to the garage via tow truck. The crew did a mega job working together to get the car back out on track for Practice 2.

The cars weren’t in the window early on in the weekend but some finetuning overnight had them in the mix for qualifying on Friday afternoon with Ryan Wood and Chaz Mostert securing tickets to the Top 10 Shootout, qualifying P3 and P6.

One lap to yourself around Mount Panorama is a privilege to not take for granted. Chaz was up first for the Team and left nothing out there, setting the third fastest time with Ryan also putting together a great lap time, locking out the second row.

Race 27

As the lights went out, engines roared with both cars getting strong starts off the line, Jayden up to P3 and Fabian getting caught on the outside line for turn 3 dropping to P5.

After the first cycle of stops, Ryan took over the wheel from Jayden with Fabian staying in for a double stint. With rain on the radar, the crew were on their feet making sure they were prepared for whatever was thrown their way.

50 laps in, the Mobil 1 Optus Racing No. 25 suffered an engine problem and a few laps later the car was parked on the side of the track for the remainder of the race. It was heartbreaking for the team but in typical Chaz fashion, he hopped out of the car and had a beer with the fans on the Mountain – what a great sport!

There was a plethora of safety cars between lap 50 and 67, with Car 2 coming into the lane for some wet tyres as rain was coming. The leaders took slick tyres so it was a bold call taking wets but that paid dividends for the team.

It was an incredible final stint for Jayden who moved from P11 to leading the race with a 20 second gap behind him by the time he passed the car over to Ryan to finish off the race. Ryan continued to build a gap to the field, a master in wet weather conditions.

The dream of winning the Bathurst 1000 this year ended abruptly with 25 laps to go when water worked its way into an engine sensor of the Mobil 1 Truck Assist Racing No. 2.

Ryan slowly made his way back into the lane, importantly, the team went to work to get the car fixed and get Woody back out on track to clinch a finals spot. Without finishing, he wouldn’t have made it – that’s what a team does.

This one hurts, but we will be back with vengeance on the Gold Coast.

Ryan Wood

“Bathurst aye, I can’t thank Juice and the whole team enough, Juice put us in a position to try and challenge for the race win and ultimately we fell short with an ECU problem.

“Really guttered, everyone worked their backsides off all week long and to have this happen to us feels a little bit unfair, but that’s motorsport.

“We are in the finals, we will bounce back and we will be giving it our all on the streets of Gold Coast.”

Jayden Ojeda

“Today felt like the one that got away, you don’t often find yourself in the lead of The Great Race coming into the final stint, super gutting.

“Awesome job from the team to get Ryan back out on track to classify a finish and get Woody into the finals. In only his second year in the championship, it’s an awesome accomplishment.”

Chaz Mostert

“I’ve been lucky enough to have victories here in the past but Bathurst didn’t choose me today so I thought I would have a beer with it and hopefully it’s nicer to me next year.

“Absolutely guttered for the team, we really tuned our cars up from where we rolled out this weekend, everyone played their part and did an incredible job. Disappointed to not get a result for them today.

“We will be back even stronger in the Gold Coast!”

Fabian Coulthard

“I’m not even sure what to say, the car was a jet and we were on for a great result until we weren’t.

“It was awesome to be back with the WAU team for another year, on days like today you want to surround yourself with family and there is no other bunch of people I would chose to be around today.

“Not the day we were after on either side of the garage, but the team held their heads high and never gave up.”