Sinking feeling for Wood as Bathurst victory slips

After a magnificent run for he and co-driver Jayden Ojeda, Ryan Wood's dream of claiming a maiden Bathurst win was dealt the most heartbreaking blow.

The Kiwi young gun was a key contender throughout the day with co-driver Jayden Ojeda, leading a sizeable chunk of the race with a hefty margin as the conditions deteriorated through the day.

However, it wasn't without mistakes, with Wood clobbering the wall at The Cutting, and also running off the road and allowing James Golding into the lead right as the sixth Safety Car was called for Macauley Jones' crash.

However worse was to follow during the Safety Car, when TV cameras caught Golding by himself behind the Safety Car, with Wood dropping away.

When the broadcast cut to the #2 Mustang, the 21-year-old was crawling along Conrod Straight with the field stacked behind, the Mustang bunny hopping back to pit lane.

An inconsolable Wood initially remained in the car as the team worked frantically in the engine bay in an attempt to get the car back out on track and classified as a finisher. He would eventually jump out of the car and spoke on broadcast.

"I'm honestly lost for words," said a shattered Wood.

"Our team tried our arses off all weekend to put ourselves in a position to try and win the race, and I made quite a few errors.

"The one at The Cutting was a luck sort of thing, and then obviously for the engine to expire or whatever has happened across both cars is pretty piss poor.

"Obviously we don't know what's happened. Look at the end of the day, I just can't thank our team enough, all of our sponsors, Juice who put us in the position we were in today with his stint.

"He's an incredible driver, an incredible human, and I'm just really gutted that we couldn't do it because it just felt like it was there today.

However, WAU would get the car back out on track to get the 21-year-old classified, with Wood eventually finishing 19th alongside Ojeda, 12 laps down on winners Matt Payne and Garth Tander.

Those points proved enough for the Kiwi to secure his berth in the Finals, with Wood being the eighth seed entering the Elimination Final at the Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500.

"Yeah look it's cool, it's really nice that we can fight for this championship, because I feel like our team deserves a lot more than what we're credited this year," Wood said.

"We'll give it a red hot crack for both me and Chazzie, and we really look forward to getting on the streets of Surfers Paradise.

"I love all of our team and all our partners, and can't wait to get to Gold Coast and try rip it up."

The 2025 Repco Supercars Finals Series commences at the Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500 on October 24-26. Tickets are on sale.