Ryan Wood dragged out of tight Finals spot with Bend 500 podium
Wood/Jaxon Evans charged from 14th to third
Wood all but assured of Finals berth, vows to come out swinging at Bathurst
When the #2 Mobil 1 Truck Assist Toyota of Ryan Wood lined up 14th on the grid at The Bend with co-driver Jaxon Evans aboard, it shaped as a true make or break day.
Wood entered the Ryco Enduro Cup opener 169 points clear of the bubble, and whilst it was a position of relative safety, several of his closest rivals would be starting right near the pointy end.
Thomas Randle’s #55 Ford started fourth, Jayden Ojeda’s Camaro was 10th, whilst the cars of Jack Le Brocq, James Golding, and Andre Heimgartner were within five positions behind.
Yet, when the dust settled on what was a wild day, Wood and Evans were the best of the group of five, charging through the field to third as teammates Chaz Mostert and Fabian Coulthard claimed victory from 11th — securing Mostert's place in the Finals.
Despite moving over 300 points clear of Heimgartner in 11th, Wood is still not quite locked in to the Finals, with Le Brocq 278 points back in 10th. There is also still the potential of the Enduro Cup winner bumping in from outside the top 10, with Ojeda (13th) claiming P5 at The Bend.
However, it would take a series of unfortunate events to occur for Wood to fall out of Finals, with the Kiwi regardless vowing to head to Bathurst with victory as the clear target.
“It’s good, that’s what we needed today," said 22-year-old Wood.
“I guess next time we roll out, it’s at Bathurst, probably the highest risk track on the calendar, and the longest race.
“We’ve just got to try and hopefully do the same, or go a couple better, and then we’re definitely in. So we’ll try and do that.
“That’s all we really could’ve asked for out of today, and seeing the cars that we are sort of racing in that bubble up the front, it was like this could be a hard day.
“But like I said, credit to this guy [Evans] because he just stuck in there, and I just brought it home at the end.”
Wood knows all too well how fickle the Mountain can be, having had a starring run in 2025 brought to a shuddering halt with a late engine issues whilst in serious contention for victory. Even his full-time debut in Supercars in 2024's Bathurst 500 was disastrous, being wiped out before Turn 1 in both of the 250km races.
However, one thing that hasn't been in doubt is Wood's speed at Bathurst, and with he and Evans having recorded maiden enduro podiums — also a maiden Supercars podium in Evans' case — both will be riding the wave of confidence to Bathurst.
"Anything can happen over 500km, and I guess for us we were sort of hoping for a bit of rain, and it came," continued Wood.
"We probably struggled still a little bit on our car for outright speed, I think Car #1 was super, super quick in all conditions.
"It's just been a really cool day. We executed really well, our strategy ended up working really well, and we were sort of following Car #1 on their strategy, and then we pivoted when they came in to put their main in.
"I said to [Richard Harris, engineer], 'I think Jaxon can keep going and mix it with the mains,' and he did.
"I trust this guy a lot, and he lived up to what I thought he could do, so super proud of him, super proud of our whole team like I said.
"500k's, 1000k's next time, you can't ever write anyone off. I think today shows that, and to be honest until Kai came out in front of me, I didn't even know we were racing for a podium. It shows how much can happen in a race."
The Repco Bathurst 1000 will be held from October 8-11.
