Ryan Wood has moved into the Supercars Championship Top Ten after a solid weekend at the Tasmania Super440, highlighted by his strong qualifying effort on Sunday.
First up on Saturday Wood entered two back-to-back qualifying sessions, Wood would start P7 for Race 11 after being spun by Brodie Kostecki late in the session and P19 for Race 12 following a difficult session.
As the lights went out for the first race of the weekend, Wood had a slow start off the line dropping back to P9 but quickly regained the positions lost off the start, the fastest car out there, working up to P7 running the long game in the opening stint.
Wood came into the lane for two rear tyres with 21 laps to go, the crew executing an awesome pitstop and Wood continued to be the fastest car on track and worked his way up to P6, running out of laps to collect a top 5 finish.
It was a tougher Race 12 for Wood who got caught in turn one mess, spinning and being left six seconds behind the back of the pack after the first corner of the first lap.
Wood had his head down and motivation to move forward with a fast car under him and was the first to pit in the field, opting to take two rear tyres and coming out with clean air in front of him helping him make gains whilst the cars behind were battling, coming out effectively P16 from P23.
It was a great recovery drive from Wood, with one of the fastest cars out on the track again but unable to convert the result after the lap one incident and finishing P16.
On Sunday, Wood found his feet and collected himself a ticket to the top-ten shootout, left nothing on the line in his lap and finished second, equaling his best ever qualifying result.
Wood battled with the first two rows off the line, slotting into P4 after the hairpin but that wasn’t where he wanted to be, he slung the Mobil 1 Truck Assist Racing No. 2 around the outside of the final corner around Waters to take P3.
Wood settled into the rhythm, one of the fastest cars on the track, until a safety car was called on lap 30 forcing the field to come into the lane.
Wood worked his way up into P2 passing Golding, he has his head down until he came into the lane for his final stop where he came out of the lane effectively P8, with four cars ahead on an alternative strategy, choosing to take both of their stops under the early safety car.
Unfortunately, the alternative strategy worked, and he ran out of laps to catch the cars ahead and finished in P8.
Wood has now worked his way into the top 10 for the drivers standings.
Round 5 of the Supercars Championship will be held on June 6-8 at the Perth Super 440.
