'Gutted' Wood in disbelief over costly failure

A heartbroken Ryan Wood has been left to ponder what could've been after a suspension failure cruelled his chances of claiming back-to-back wins at the Bosch Power Tools Perth Super 440.

Having started on pole for the first time in his career, the WAU young gun slipped back to third after a tardy start, but by lap 19 had worked his way past both Matt Payne and Cam Waters to resume his spot in the lead.

However, he would only assume the lead for three laps before disaster struck entering Kolb Corner at Turn 6.

At the exit of Turn 5, Wood's left rear suspension failed, pitching the Kiwi into a wild ride through the sand at Kolb, and promoting Waters back into the lead.

Wood was able to sail through the sand and return to the pits, but the damage was done, with the 21-year-old spending a considerable amount of time in pit lane whilst repairs were carried out.

"Something broke, I'm not too sure, I can't believe it to be honest," said a despondent Wood.

"Our race car was unbelievable, that's all I care about. We should've won that race I think, and I hate to be cocky, but the thing was a jet.

"So I'm pretty gutted, but at the end of the day we can hold our heads high. There's still plenty of positives out of today, but we just want to get some points, so I'd better get ready."

Wood was able to finish 24th, 11 laps down on race winner Broc Feeney, and has slipped from eighth to ninth in points, level with Cameron Hill in eighth.

Post-race, Supercars broadcast expert Mark Larkham revealed that it was a failure in the front point of the lower wishbone in the left rear suspension that caused Wood to spear off.

Erebus Motorsport rookie Cooper Murray suffered an identical failure at the same part of the circuit on Lap 40, with Larkham suggesting there could be cause for concern up and down pit lane tonight.

"I'm just walking now back to Walkinshaw's team to report back to them, and they asked me to find out about Cooper Murray's left wishbone, which I just went and did," Larkham explained.

"Same wishbone, broken in the same spot, it's the rod-end in this case, the little thing the screws in there, but it's the same forces, same pressures, same issue no doubt has broken that.

"That might be something everyone has to look out for tomorrow."

Supercars action resumes in Perth on Sunday with Boost Mobile Qualifying at 11:00am local/1:00pm AEST, which sets the running order for the Boost Mobile Top Ten Shootout at 1:05pm local/3:05pm AEST.

The weekend concludes with Race 16 at 3:15pm local/5:15pm AEST.