Supercars umpire explains Wood/Brown flashpoints as new radio emerges

Newly-released radio messages have shed further light on the clashes between Ryan Wood and Will Brown in a fiery conclusion to the Century Batteries Ipswich Super 440.

Wood and Brown collided on multiple occasions during the closing stages of Race 25 at Queensland Raceway.

After a Safety Car restart, Brown muscled past Wood at Turn 6, with the move earning the ire of the Walkinshaw Andretti United driver.

Speaking after the race, Wood maintained he "had no intention to turn him or retaliate even.”

Brown, though, fired up on his Lucky Dogs podcast in the days after the incident, saying: "I've bookmarked it. He’s ninth. I’m third. I’ve got a ticket to The Finals.

“I can tell you right now, I’m going to remember that one... I just think, at the end of the day, if you let it slide he’s going to think he won.”

Published Tuesday, an extended cut of the weekend's radio featured an in-depth look at the clashes, with Wood's frustrating stemming from the initial contact at Turn 6.

Remonstrating to engineer Richard Harris, Wood said: “He just bumped and run me. That has to be a penalty. Put that into the stewards.”

Wood later tipped Brown into a spin at Turn 3, and was apologetic over the incident: "I’m so sorry. I was just in too hard. Oh my god.”

In response to the hit, Brown’s engineer Andrew Edwards asked his driver: “Did he hit you? Or was that us?

Brown replied: “Mate, he hit me and turned me around,” to which Edwards said: “Nice job Woody.”

After the chequered flag, Brown caught up to Wood on the cool down lap, and the two cars made contact at Turn 3 when the WAU Ford turned in. At the exit of Turn 3, Wood returned serve, with Brown showing the middle finger.

In response, Wood said: “You do the same shit all the time mate… you can’t just drive with your front bar. Just because you’ve got the #1 on doesn’t mean you have priority.”

Harris replied: “You know what he’s like, mate, he’s a hot head. You’re bigger than that, you’re the bigger man… he’s just being a peanut. He served you up as well, so…”

Wood responded: “100 percent he did and got what he deserved.”

Brown had a different take, saying: “I didn’t run into him, he turned into me… I thought it was actually pretty funny.”

Speaking to Supercars.com after the event, Motorsport Australia Driving Standards Advisor Craig Baird explained the differences between the two in-race clashes, saying: “People think we issued a lot of penalties at QR. There wasn't that many. But the difference is, Turn 6 is a double apex corner that they all take a V-shape for the optimum racing line.

"So you go in, you take a narrow entry and you go out wide, then you come back to the second part of the apex. It happened multiple times, someone’s been able to force the issue and get into the gap, then there's a little bit of bump and grind. That's a play-on.

"But if you created the gap — like [Chaz] Mostert, who created the gap by hitting the back of [Anton] De Pasquale, pushing him a metre or two wider, allowing him to get in the gap — that’s not on.

“Right from the beginning, I said nose-to-tail, front-to-rear will not be tolerated. Anyone can make a gap or get past up by running into the rear bar of another car, but they know it’s not on.

“People thought Brown got into the back of Ryan Wood. He didn't. He shoved it in the gap, but the gap was already there. They rubbed door handles on the way out, but that's what they all want to do. So that's the play-on.

"Ryan was a bit aggrieved with his penalty, but he just drove into the back of Will, and said on the radio he just went in too hot. So, that's a penalty — you turned the car, you didn't just rub its wing mirror.”

Brown and Wood sit third and ninth in points heading to the first Ryco Enduro Cup round, the AirTouch 500 at The Bend, on September 12-14. Tickets are on sale now.