Wood, Brown trade frustration over costly clashes
Ryan Wood, Will Brown trade frustration over costly clashes
Brown and Wood 16th and 22nd on road after colliding, 23rd and 21st in final classification
Wood penalised over lap 42 clash at Turn 3, Brown pinged for a pit stop breach
Will Brown and Ryan Wood have traded barbs over a series of heated clashes in a dramatic Ipswich finale.
Reigning champion Brown and Walkinshaw Andretti United rising star Wood finished 16th and 22nd on road on Sunday, with the duo coming together at Turn 3 on lap 42.
Just four laps earlier, Brown muscled by Wood at Turn 6, leaving the latter fuming over the radio.
After the race, Brown ranged up alongside Wood and made light contact with the Mobil 1 Truck Assist Mustang, before showing the Kiwi the middle finger.
Wood, however, was frustrated by the earlier contact, despite admitting he had no intention of tipping Brown out.
“Obviously I had no intention to turn him or retaliate even,” Wood said.
"I knew he was probably a bit faster than me, but I just got in too hard at Turn 3 and got him right at the apex point.
“Once you're at the peak load of your tyre and then you get one little bump, it can go pretty bad like it did."
Repco Sprint Cup winner Broc Feeney won the race, with Cam Waters and Kai Allen benefiting from a mid-race Safety Car to complete the podium.
Wood and Brown were in the hunt early, but were down the order after the Safety Car. Brown's forceful move led to an attack down the straight by Wood, before their races unravelled four laps later.
"I rubbed him up a little bit, and I think he was unhappy with it, so he just turned me around," Brown said.
"It's disappointing... but that's the way it goes."
Wood added: "Just obviously gutted for our side of the team because we felt like we had a really good weekend up until that point. And it feels like every time we get a bit of momentum, it just unravels.
“Sometimes it's on me, sometimes it's not. But I've gotta take that one on the chin and make sure me and [Jayden Ojeda, co-driver] do a good job at the enduros.
“Just gutted for myself and [Brown] because he is a really good rooster."
However, Brown was later penalised himself for a pit stop breach, which dropped him from 16th back to 23rd in the final results, with Wood promoted to 21st.
