Precautionary change for Wood Supra after spirited Sydney run
Precautionary change for Ryan Wood car after spirited Sydney run
Wood brought home strong top 10 as Chaz Mostert gains 10 spots
Andre Heimgartner was ruled out of Race 2 after engine issue
Walkinshaw TWG Racing has completed a precautionary overnight engine change on the Ryan Wood car ahead of Sunday's DUNLOP Sydney 500 action.
The New Zealander qualified fourth aboard his #2 Mobil 1 Truck Assist Toyota GR Supra, before racing to seventh between the Fords of Broc Feeney and Kai Allen.
The race was neutralised by the Shannons Safety Car after an engine issue brought Andre Heimgartner's #8 R&J Batteries Supra to a halt on the run to Turn 9. Brad Jones Racing completed an overnight engine change on the #8.
A Walkinshaw TWG Racing spokesperson told Supercars.com that a precautionary change has also been undertaken on the Wood car before Sunday's action.
Wood hailed the impressive day, but took issue with his poor start, having dropped from fourth to seventh by the end of lap 1.
“Today was pretty special, being a part of a milestone getting the Toyota Supra into the Top Ten Shootout was cool and to gain six positions on qualifying to start P4 for the race," Wood said.
“As a whole, today was a very good day for us. We finished in the top 10 in the race and we were racing with the big dogs, still plenty of learning to come this weekend.
"All my race start practice over the summer clearly hasn’t helped my starts, I really need to dig into that because the start put us on the back foot today."
Following a qualifying miscue due to weather, Mostert crossed the line 12th, but was promoted to 11th following a post-race time penalty for Thomas Randle.
Wood and Mostert sit 10th and 14th in points heading into Sunday's race.
“Today’s qualifying session didn’t show the pace we had in the car, we took a gamble to run early after the rain started but it wasn't the right decision, how good is hindsight," Mostert said.
“The crew did a mega job tuning the cars up overnight, today's package was a lot stronger than what we rolled out with at the beginning of the weekend and we don't take that for granted.
“We’ve got another big day tomorrow, there’s still plenty of learnings, we need to put our heads together tonight so we can attack even stronger tomorrow.”
