Tearful Wood 'felt like Murphy was riding with me' to breakthrough win

A lot has been made about Greg Murphy's mentoring of Walkinshaw Andretti United young gun Ryan Wood since he burst onto the Supercars scene, however it proved invaluable at CARCO.com.au Raceway today.

Wood was firmly in control of Race 14 at the Bosch Power Tools Perth Super 440, having forced his way by teammate Chaz Mostert on Lap 11, and seen off a feisty challenge from Broc Feeney immediately after his pit stop.

However, reigning Supercars champion Will Brown was the first of the cars to stop for four tyres, as Wood and Feeney only swapped two tyres, and Feeney made life easy for his Red Bull Ampol Racing teammate.

Brown had 12 laps to crush a 1.4 second gap to Wood, and looked on track to do so at points, however the 21-year-old Kiwi impressively picked up his pace in the dying laps to come home with a 0.6 second margin.

An emotional Wood teared up as he crossed the line, and there were wild scenes in PIRTEK Victory Lane as the jubilant Kiwi celebrated his first Supercars win at the same venue he scored his first Super2 win in 2023.

Wood revealed post-race, that it was key learnings from four-time Bathurst winner Murphy that helped him in the final laps of the 50-lapper, so much so that the Wellingtonian felt as though the former Walkinshaw pilot was riding shotgun.

"Yeah it's funny, with about eight laps to go, it's funny what the brain does," Wood said.

"He popped into my head and it felt like he was riding those laps with me and going, 'Don't stuff it up, don't stuff it up. Look after the tyre.'

"It really helped because I was getting into that groove where you start making a few errors because you start overdriving it, and I just backed it back, and it started taking off again.

"The role he's played has been massive, he's really got me into WAU, he and Scott O'Donnell, and to be here representing a lot of my Kiwi sponsors on my helmet, and be a part of that with Murph's help.

"I'm lucky enough to have known Murph since I was eight or nine, he used to come out to the local kart track and watch, and to now do this with him by my side is something I'll never forget."

Wood's career day could get better yet, as he is set to start from pole position for the first time in his career in Race 15 of the 2025 season at 4:10pm local time/6:10pm AEST.