Wood opens up on Grand Prix incident
Supercars
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Ryan Wood opens up on Grand Prix incident with Jack Le Brocq
Wood earned drive-through penalty over lap 1 collision that took Le Brocq out
WAU driver recorded two top six finishes either side of Race 5
Ryan Wood has spoken publicly on the divisive penalty over his Melbourne collision with Jack Le Brocq, which led to a heavy crash for the Erebus Motorsport driver.
Walkinshaw Andretti United driver Wood enjoyed a breakout weekend at the Grand Prix, out-qualifying teammate Chaz Mostert and claiming two top six finishes.
It could have been three, with Wood handed a drive-through penalty over his role in the Race 5 clash with Le Brocq as the duo disputed eighth on lap 1.
Wood made contact with Le Brocq at Turn 5, sending the Erebus Camaro spinning into the concrete wall and out of the race. Le Brocq was out on the spot with front and rear damage, and later claimed Wood "bombed it in there a bit hot."
The penalty earned the ire of Wood’s countrymen Scott McLaughlin and Shane van Gisbergen, with a judicial vision still from Wood’s car posted to social media and later removed.
Wood shared his opinion regarding the incident on Supercars’ Drivers Only podcast, admitting his disappointment while insisting Driving Standards Advisor Craig Baird "makes the right call 99% of the time."
“Personally, looking back at it, you can't judge an incident a hundred percent on the outcome,” Wood said.
"If he came out of the corner, spun, car wasn't wrecked, I think it would've been a different story. All in all, I think Bairdo makes the right call 95% of the time, if not 99% of the time.
"I think for me, it was the way it was; it was a drive-through in the race, not a post-race investigation. We didn't even get a chance to talk about it or see different angles.
"AGP’s hard because they can only take what they see on the cameras on the television. There's no extra [cameras] like the rest of our rounds.
"So yeah, I think that was more the fact that I was disappointed.”
Wood was joined on the podcast by Penrite Racing teammates Matt Payne and Kai Allen, who both found themselves on the wrong side of incidents during the weekend.
At the beginning of the discussion, rookie Allen posed: "Well, there's a car in the fence destroyed, so you gotta give someone a penalty, right?”
Later, the 2023 Super2 champion said he "got doored very hard at the second last corner,” and that there were incidents that were "very marginal, and they didn't get penalties.”
Before Wood and Le Brocq collided in Race 5, Payne came off worst in a three-wide clash at Turn 1, but conceded he was "on the wrong end of the stick."
"I got a bad start and I was on the back foot a little bit and I was probably should have just stuck to my guns on the inside,” said Payne, who charged back to 11th after his spin.
"But I think that was just one of those ones where I just was on the wrong end of the stick, and just got served.”
The 2025 Repco Supercars Championship will resume at the ITM Taupō Super 440 on April 11-13. Tickets are on sale now.
