Ryan Wood. Image: Supplied
Wood is moving on from a highly publicised Ipswich spat with Will Brown, which involved two in-race clashes, cool-down lap contact and a string of fiery radio messages.
The Walkinshaw Andretti United driver was penalised for spinning Brown during the race – an incident that appeared an over-zealous attempt at a retaliatory bump following earlier contact.
While Brown was the instigator of the post-race clash, Wood clearly lost his cool, at one stage yelling across towards his rival before adding the driver “got what he deserved”.
Reflecting on the saga via the Formation Lap ahead of the AirTouch 500 at The Bend, Wood said the experience of his mentor Murphy has once again been invaluable.
‘Being a peanut’: More details of fiery Wood, Brown clash emerge
“I’ve got to learn and improve and there’s no better person to lean on when it comes to hot head conversations,” said Wood of Murphy, whose career was peppered with confrontations.
“He definitely gave me a reminder and I definitely said, ‘well that’s a bit rich coming from you Murph’. [But] it’s been good to have him in my corner and be able to pull me up on stuff like that.
“He’s the king of blow-ups but I feel like he’s probably taken a lot away from that and been able to try and pass some of that knowledge to me to handle those situations a little bit better.”
The clash with Brown overshadowed a Queensland Raceway event in which Wood scored a pair of podiums and cost crucial points as he fights to remain in a Finals slot.
“I just got it wrong. My reaction was probably moreso frustrated with myself and took it out with words that probably shouldn’t have been spoken,” he said.
“It’s something I’ll look back on and try and better myself for next time. It’s always nice when you can speak your mind but at the end of the day, I feel like a few things were uncalled for.”
Greg Murphy and Ryan Wood. Image: Supplied
Brown indicated in the days after the event that he’ll look to settle the score with his rival at a later date, noting that “if you let it slide, he’s going to think he won.”
Although keen to move on, Wood admits what happens next might be out of his hands.
“I guess he’s got the next move, to be honest,” he said.
“He obviously said a few things after QR, which is fair enough. It cost him valuable points, and it cost myself valuable points, so it’s more frustrating for both of us.
“We’ve had a few convos, probably just one convo that we both took something out of, which is good, but at the end of the day, I hope me and Browny and can move on from it.
“We were good mates and I feel like we still are. He’s an awesome rooster and someone I get along with on and off the track.
“At the end of the day, racing’s racing. Especially when you don’t mean to do something on purpose, I feel like sometimes it makes it a bit more easy to get over.
“We’ll see what the next state of play is.”
Wood currently sits ninth in the Supercars standings ahead of the Endurance Cup, where he’ll share the #2 Truck Assist Mustang with Jayden Ojeda.