Woody, 21 years old, joined 20-year-old Kai Allen in second and 22-year-old winner Broc Feeney to form the youthful top three in the weekend’s opening race. The 20-something trio’s average age was calculated at 20 years and 216 days, eclipsing the record set less than two months ago in Darwin. His place on that history-making podium was set up by another showing of impressive single-lap speed, with his Walkinshaw Andretti United Mustang rolling out strongly for the weekend’s first two grid-setting sessions.
Ryan qualified third in the dry and a sensational second in the wet as one of only three drivers to get in a semi-representative lap as the heavens opened to suddenly soak the circuit. Both results were put to good use around the reinstated Queensland Raceway, where passing proved difficult all weekend. Woody held third place off the line for the track’s first Supercars race since 2019, but what looked like a nailed-on third-place trophy came under threat late from Will Brown, who had pitted for four fresh tyres to speedily close in on the Mobil 1 Truck Assist entry’s rear bumper. Brown was trailing by only half a second with three laps remaining, but the battle ended in an anticlimax when a safety car was called to recover the beached David Reynolds, securing Wood the trophy.
Woody dropped a place off the line at the beginning of the day’s late race, but more costly was the two places he dropped at the pit stops, dumping him behind Bryce Fullwood and Anton de Pasquale. He had enough pace to make up for it, however, and by lap 30 — just seven laps after his stop — he had made moves on both to restore himself to third for back-to-back podiums, doubling his career trophy tally in a single day.
Sunday started with promise of perpetuation for his good pace, with another shootout appearance converted into second on the grid, but the weekend’s feature race was less satisfying. A clean start ensured he held second, and he retained the place during the sudden early shower that briefly threatened to upend the race. But mid-distance safety car to rescue the stranded Cameron Crick shook up the order. Three drivers hadn’t yet made their pit stops and rocketed to the front, dropping Woody from second to fifth. The scramble for the podium turned into a brawl. Brown, having been thwarted for position on Saturday, barged past, and in Woody’s determination to take the position back he incurred a 15-second penalty for tipping the Camaro into a spin. He crossed the line seventh, but with the field still tight after the safety car, the penalty dropped him to 21st in the final classification. The sour ending to another strong weekend meant Woody left Ipswich with fewer points than anticipated, but his double podium was enough to move him up one place in the championship, to ninth, at the end of the inaugural Supercars Sprint Cup.
With two rounds to go before the finals, he’s inside the top 10 with a 34-point buffer to 11th.
“We rolled out of the truck pretty strong. It felt like we really qualified well this weekend — a third, a second and then a second in the shootout, which was really cool. Qualifying speed was a real positive to take out of the weekend.
“Saturday was awesome, with two podiums and third, and on Sunday we were having an awesome race but in the second stint we had an unexpected full course yellow, which then popped us back to fifth while we were running second.
“Then we got caught in a battle with Will Brown there after a little bump-and-run he made on me. Then I went in a bit hard at turn 3 and unfortunately rotated him. Sorry to his side of the garage and to Browny; it was just a mistake on my behalf, and hopefully we can move on from it and go from there.”
