Walkinshaw TWG Racing’s Ryan Wood on track at the Perth Super440.
Ryan Wood failed to take the start of Sunday’s Perth Super440 finale, forced to pull his Walkinshaw TWG Supra to the garage on the formation lap.
The team initially worked to get the car out to score points before admitting defeat as the Lap 20 cut-off lapsed.
“It feels like it’s some kind of backfire through the manifold,” Walkinshaw TWG CEO Bruce Stewart told the broadcast.
“We’ll diagnose it with more information when we get it back.”
It’s the latest in a series of failures for the Toyota 2UR-GSE V8 that Walkinshaw has developed in conjunction with British firm Swindon Powertrains for the Supercars project.
Work continues on an upgrade for the engine to solve a known valvetrain weakness.
“It’s disappointing, challenging,” mused Stewart.
“We’re learning but it doesn’t make it easy. We’re a proud team, we’ve got a great engine team, but it’s on us.
“We’ve got to do the learning, it’s our engine and in that respect… Toyota has a great saying; we race, we learn, you win.
“We’re in an uncomfortable learning period but we’ve got the right people and I know we’ll find the right solution.
“We’ve got a really good plan mapped out, but it doesn’t make it hurt [less].
“It’s very disappointing for us, our fans, our supporters and the faithful team at Toyota.
“But again, it’s on us.”
The issues with the engine are particularly painful given reliability is a cornerstone of Toyota’s reputation and marketing efforts.