{"id":603312,"date":"2026-09-17T14:52:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T14:52:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/603312\/"},"modified":"2026-09-17T14:52:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T14:52:12","slug":"supercars-news-chaz-mosterts-fear-after-tense-battle-with-ryan-wood-during-bend-500","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/603312\/","title":{"rendered":"Supercars news: Chaz Mostert\u2019s fear after tense battle with Ryan Wood during Bend 500"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Mostert\u2019s\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tChaz Mostert. Image: Richard Gresham <\/p>\n

Sunday proved a storybook day for the squad, with its Mostert\/Fabian Coulthard and Wood\/Jaxon Evans Toyotas finishing first and third.<\/p>\n

However, Mostert ended the race unsure if a tense battle between the Supras two-thirds of the way through had cost the team a 1-2 finish.<\/p>\n

The team offset its cars by electing not to pit Evans under the third Safety Car, but they found themselves on track together when Mostert emerged from his fourth stop ahead of Wood.<\/p>\n

Wood lost three seconds to the chasing Kai Allen over the next three laps as Mostert attempted to fire-up his slick tyres on a circuit that was still treacherous off the racing line.<\/p>\n

Allen ultimately jumped Wood in the next round of stops \u2013 the Grove Racing Ford sitting just over three seconds ahead of the Toyota at the end of its out-lap.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s probably something we\u2019ll review a bit as a team,\u201d said Mostert when asked by Speedcafe about the battle.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve spoken about [that fact] we sometimes trip over each other a little bit this year. When you got such a competitive teammate, that\u2019s always going to happen at some point.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got first and a third, and hopefully we don\u2019t review it and [find out] Woody lost a second [place] because of where we kind of came out.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s important for us to always look how we can always be better, but clear track is so important. I was hoping to try and get up to speed as quick as I can and get going.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe didn\u2019t really have lines to really have a go because it\u2019s still wet offline, and he was super respectful behind me and did a solid job.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Mostert had emerged ahead, Wood asked his team what they wanted him to do and was informed the #1 entry had a fuel-in-hand advantage and fresher tyres.<\/p>\n

Engineer Richard Harris\u2019 instructions were to \u201cjust race, we just want to not hold each other up\u201d, before channelling his old mentor Ludo Lacroix by urging his driver to be \u201cnice and smooth\u201d.<\/p>\n

The heart-in-mouth moment that proved Toyota B-spec<\/a><\/p>\n

Wood\u2019s mentor Greg Murphy questioned the approach while commentating for the TV broadcast, declaring the team should have swapped positions to avoid car #2 losing out.<\/p>\n

Four laps later Wood lamented that \u201cwe\u2019ve lost so much time\u201d and later revealed he\u2019d deliberately backed away from his teammate after initial efforts to get ahead.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t really know if I was in the race [for the win], but I knew Chaz was obviously the leader and then when he dropped out in front of me, I\u2019m like, \u2018I\u2019ll try and have a crack\u2019,\u201d recalled Wood.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reason I was trying to get past was just because I had felt how long it had taken the slick tyre to come up to speed, and I could see him trying super hard to get going.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut then also with me tucked right behind him, it takes a lot of aero away from his car.<\/p>\n

\u201cI sort of realised after two laps, okay, there\u2019s no way of me getting past cleanly or low risk, and then I just sort of dropped it off a little bit and gave him a little bit of space.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen his grip sort of came together, and we probably didn\u2019t lose as much time.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike Chaz said, it\u2019s something that we\u2019ve got to review because it has been probably something that\u2019s happened probably more often than we would have liked.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wood\u2019s radio chatter at The Bend was notably calmer than it had been when Mostert exited the pits in front of him at previous events this year, including Symmons Plains and Townsville.<\/p>\n

While keeping it clean during the race, Wood had tagged the back of Mostert during opening practice on Friday, which marked the back of the ultimately race-winning entry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chaz Mostert. Image: Richard Gresham Sunday proved a storybook day for the squad, with its Mostert\/Fabian Coulthard and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":603313,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[22208,111,139,69,13401,1058,213,154397],"class_list":["post-603312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-chaz-mostert","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-ryan-wood","tag-slot1","tag-sports","tag-walkinshaw-twg-racing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/603312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=603312"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/603312\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/603313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=603312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=603312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=603312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}