Woody was in blisteringly quick form on the Gold Coast from the first day of track action, with two top-two finishes in the opening two practice sessions setting him out as a contender for the first knockout round of the year.
He duly turned that pace into pole position for Saturday’s race with a sizzling shootout lap to line up first on the grid. It was just the second start from P1 of his career following his maiden pole in Perth earlier this season and his sixth front-row start of 2025.
A great launch and some keen defensive work kept him ahead of the fast-starting Broc Feeney, but his efforts were in vain when his fuel tank sprung a leak on lap 7.
He was forced to give up the lead and enter pit lane for repairs. Rejoining the race last and eight laps down, the rest of his afternoon was a lonely drive to the chequered flag in 20th place just to bank some potentially crucial points in his suddenly flagging title campaign.
Only victory would on Sunday would be enough to move Ryan into the top seven on the title table to keep his championship hopes alive, but 13th in qualifying had his back up against the wall immediately.
Things then went from bad to worse almost immediately, with his cool suit failing just minutes into the 85-lap race on a day the weather station reported 25°C ambient but a suffocating 85 per cent humidity.
The Kiwi gambled on an alternative strategy with a pit stop just six laps into the race in a bid to get his Mobil 1 Truck Assist Racing Mustang into clear air and potentially benefit from a forecast thunderstorm, but in the lane he was jumped by Brodie Kostecki, who also had to win at all costs, which hampered the effectiveness of the call.
An aggressive second stint followed that saw Woody rise from 22nd after his stop to ninth, but with no rain on the radar, he had to make a second tyre change on lap 44. Another mammoth rise through the field was required by his second stop, which dumped him to 20th in the order, but a late safety car helped him to consolidate a top-10 finish that became ninth after penalties were applied elsewhere.
It wasn’t enough to move him into the top seven, however, and he was eliminated from championship contention in ninth, just 69 points short of a berth for the Sandown 500.
Making the finals guarantees Woody a top-10 championship finish — well up on last year’s 16th — but he can now finish no higher than eighth in an exclusive battle with Kostecki and Anton de Pasquale over the final two rounds of the season.
A cooked Woody here on Sunday on the Gold Coast 500. It’s been an amazing weekend for our team. Chaz [Mostert] won both races and I had a pole.
On Saturday we had a mechanical gremlin in while leading and ended up getting basically last with not a lot of points.
On Sunday we went out with the hopes of being super aggressive. We pitted lap 6, and unfortunately what we were hoping for — a little bit of rain, a little bit of clean air — didn’t quite work out for us today. We ended up P9.
It was a super tough race for me today. The cool suit failed on lap 3. It’s super hot and humid up here on the Gold Coast, so I had to work for it — although I just smashed a whole lot of food, so I’m happy now, and I’m feeling a little bit better.
I can’t wait to get down to Sandown and help my mate Mozzie win this championship, because we’re going for it. I’m excited to play a little bit of a rear gunner role.
I’d have loved to have been there. We just fell short, but at the end of the day for us at the start of the year our goal was always to get in the top 10, win our first race and get a podium. We’ve ticked all those boxes. I’m super happy.
At the end of the day there’s still a lot to work on. I just can’t wait to round out the year with our group with hopefully some more trophies.
