Not the day we were after to finish up our weekend here at Queensland Raceway with both Ryan Wood and Chaz Mostert being handed post race penalties.
The morning started off with qualifying which saw both Chaz and Ryan get a ticket to the Top 10 Shootout. Ryan was up first out of the two, putting together an impressive lap, leaving nothing on the table, putting himself in box position for the race in P2. Chaz in the Mobil 1 Optus Racing No. 25 took the wrong direction in set-up so struggled on pace, lining up P9.
As we saw in yesterday’s races, there are limited passing opportunities so strategy would play a big role in the 200km race.
In the first two laps both cars held positions until the weather turned. A sudden downpour saw Chaz move up two spots, while Ryan closed in on Broc Feeney in the lead.
Chaz opted for an early undercut on lap 19, coming out effectively P6. Ryan pitted a lap later, benefiting from clear air as those behind him battled on track.
The race took a twist on lap 31 when the safety car was deployed. Three cars that hadn’t yet pitted gained a massive advantage, cycling to the front of the field after earning two free pit stops under yellow – dropping Ryan from P2 to P5 and Chaz from P6 to P9.
On the restart, Chaz charged forward, gaining four positions, eager to hunt his way down for a podium finish. However, a five-second penalty for contact with De Pasquale saw him demoted from P5 across the line to P6.
Ryan was also handed a 15 second penalty, crossing the line not far behind Chaz but dropped down to 22nd in a compressed field after the safety car.
It was a frustrating end to what has been a positive weekend. Fabs and Jayden will jump behind the wheel on Tuesday here at Queensland Raceway for the co-driver test, ahead of the endurance series.
Ryan Wood
“Tough way to finish an awesome weekend, P3 in two races on Saturday and top three in all quali sessions which is a lot of positives to take away.
“Once again, I have left myself down on a Sunday. Sorry to Car 1’s crew, didn’t mean to turn Browny, I just got in too hard, I felt like I cost us both a good result.
“It’s eyes forward to endurance series, we have the band back together with Juice taking on a drumming role with myself and Fabs stepping into a guitarist alongside Chaz, but don’t worry I’m still the lead singer.”
Chaz Mostert
“I was really hopeful to try and get a trophy today, I made it a bit harder after qualifying in 9th but I will still determined to do it.
“We tuned the car up today for qualifying but we gave up some of our strengths and found some of our weaknesses but overall we didn’t really nail it today.
Racing was really good today, made up a couple of spots but the safety car came out and some people really lucked into it, I wasn’t so nice to one driver so got a five second penalty which hurt us.”