'It's pretty average': Wood, Walkinshaw slam wild qualifying incident

Ryan Wood and Ryan Walkinshaw have been left seething after a frightening near miss during Boost Mobile Qualifying in Melbourne, which consigned Friday's podium finisher to last for Race 6.

Wood didn't set a lap in the morning's first session, and will start 24th and last on Saturday, following a dramatic end to Race 6 qualifying.

The end result was the final effect of a heavily disrupted session for Wood, who was robbed of a first run in the session after being stuck in first gear on his out lap.

Repairs got the #2 Mobil 1 Truck Assist GR Supra back out, handing Wood a final crack at climbing the time sheets. However, Wood was in something of a no man's land, having missed the opening run.

Congestion became a factor as half the field rounded the final corners, with Wood approaching at full speed. Unsighted, Wood was forced to abort his lap.

Jackson Walls and Macauley Jones both pulled out of the way of Wood, but as he rounded Turn 12, he was met by a wall of cars, and almost speared into the rear of Thomas Randle's Tickford Mustang.

Wood's only lap was ruined, and after the highs of claiming Toyota's first Supercars podium yesterday, he will now start off the rear of the grid in this afternoon's 19 lap sprint. Such was Wood's anger, that he side-swiped Randle as they drove down the pit straight.

Even after qualifying sixth for the finale, behind pole sitter Will Brown, Wood was still at a loss over the earlier result.

“It wasn't by choice, unfortunately. We had some stuff go on, that's just stuff when you've got a new car,” the 22-year-old told the broadcast.

“It put us a little bit out of sync and then, yeah, I just don't know with radios, comms, and everything like that, how that can happen and nine cars or whatever it is, miss a lap, like 11 cars.

“It’s pretty average to be honest… we're the top tier of saloon car racing in Australia and 11 cars don't get a lap in qualifying.

“I think it just comes with common sense at the end of the day. The brains trust behind us is who we trust the most. Unfortunately, 11 cars didn't have their brains trust managing their session very well by the looks."

It was a sentiment echoed by Walkinshaw TWG Racing boss Walkinshaw, who questioned the qualifying run plans of teams who didn't make it around for a second run, which ultimately produced the fastest times.

Walkinshaw wasn't the only team boss fired up, with PremiAir Racing Team Principal Roland Dane remonstrating to Supercars motorsport chief Tim Edwards between sessions

Dane said on the broadcast: "Those second runs should not have been counted, because it has to be fair on everyone. Everyone has got to have a fair crack, and they didn't."

Walkinshaw told Supercars.com: "We were kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place, because we had to send him out. Obviously he hadn't had his warm up lap like everyone else.

"We had to try and get a warm up lap in and then do his proper lap, but we assumed that everyone else in pit lane would know what they were doing, and would've made sure that their cars would have got over the line before the chequered flag.

"For some utterly bizarre reason, we saw 11 cars not even manage to get their lap in because they didn't hit the line before the chequered flag, which is really frustrating.

"Because of that, by the time Woody flew into the back of them all in the train, so a bizarre situation.

"Woody should've been fine, and got over the line just as the last cars were starting the lap, and because of some quite bizarre situations from other teams, and how they decided to manage their session, Woody didn't manage to get a lap in, and nor did another 11 cars in the field.

"Kind of weird to be honest, but ultimately it happened because we were out of sync with the gearbox issue. He was fast, it was looking like he would be P3, maybe even ahead of Chaz."

Saturday's action resumes with Race 6 at 5:35pm local time, before the Melbourne SuperSprint concludes with Race 7 on Sunday at 10:10am.