How ride day unlocked Walkinshaw's dream team

Whilst the Supercars world stood and up and took notice of Ryan Wood on June 7, 2025, Chaz Mostert took notice on a ride day some two years prior.

Wood was only 19 at the time, and a DUNLOP Super2 Series rookie, whilst Mostert was in the midst of his fourth season for Walkinshaw Andretti United, and wanting a teammate to help push the team forward.

Wood had already made a name for himself early in that year’s Super2 season, clean sweeping the round at Perth, and establishing himself as one of, if not the fastest driver in the field. With current-day Supercars contemporaries Kai Allen, Cooper Murray, and Zach Bates also on the grid that year, that was no mean feat.

Just to make the step into Super2 was a brave call in its own right, Wood having walked away from a fully funded Porsche Team New Zealand scholarship when Walkinshaw put an offer on the table to join their return to Super2.

It was clear to many that Wood was destined to achieve big things, especially at a time where Walkinshaw’s main game program was missing a teammate to support Wood, Nick Percat having struggled to get up to speed after replacing Bryce Fullwood after the 2021 season.

When asked at a mid-season ride day to sit in with the Kiwi, Mostert said a reluctant yes. However, even he couldn’t believe what he saw and experienced in that brief introduction to Wood’s immense talents.

“The natural talent, I remember when they were talking about should we give this young guy a crack after his first year of DVS [development series], and the situation,” Mostert recalled on the Lucky Dogs podcast.

“They were like, 'Could you go for a ride with him in his DVS car?’ And I hate going for rides, I do not like being out of control, I’m not a passenger driver to save my life.

“I went around with him at SMP, and he’s hitting every single mark. Other than ‘turn off this white line and that white line,’ and hitting every right kerb in the DVS car, or at least what it felt like in the passenger seat.

“The most impressive thing for me, which I’ve never been able to do, was he was a left foot braker in DVS, and he also used the opportunity for getting in the car with me to go, ‘If I just alternate to right foot braking, can you double check that everything looks alright?’

“I literally got in and was like, ‘Mate, there’s nothing wrong with your right foot braking. From what I can see, other than a little bit of throttle position and maybe using a little bit too much, it all makes sense'.

“I don’t know if he had done some in some other category to be so confident with it, but in DVS he was just left footing, he felt most comfortable with that.”

Such was the impression that Wood had made in just a few short minutes, that Mostert knew Walkinshaw might have found their guy to supplement Mostert.

Two-time Bathurst winner Mostert continued: “It was most impressive. I said, ‘I can’t give you any tips'.

“Other than just being adaptive on the fly and still hitting every mark out there and scaring the daylights out of me, I was like, ‘I think he’s got it'.

“At that point, still DVS — because we were still learning Gen3 — he was in the most recent car we had just come out of, and what he was doing in his year, and the pace he was showing was impressive.

“Especially coming from a Porsche background and all that. It was like, ‘the world’s his oyster'."

With that feedback front of mind, Walkinshaw were quick to act. An evaluation day at Winton only further strengthened Wood's case, and by September 2023 he had been signed to the Supercars program.

Showing glimpses of promise throughout 2024, it all clicked in Perth last year, Wood nailing his first win, and denied a second by a suspension failure whilst leading later in the day.

Now, he returns, this time a Toyota driver, and leading the program throughout the first half of the 2026 season.

Wood won Race 9 of the season in home soil in Taupō, and will be looking to add to his Perth win from last year when cars hit the track in the west this weekend.