Brown laments being caught in Wood battle
Will Brown laments being caught in robust Ryan Wood battle
Rising WAU star put reigning champion to the sword early in Race 1
Brown fought from 11th on the grid to fifth by race's end
Will Brown admits his early-race battle with Ryan Wood “hurt” his efforts to climb from 11th on the grid to the podium at the Thrifty Sydney 500 - Opening Round.
Brown started 11th on Friday night after missing Q2 due to an error in Boost Mobile Qualifying, and faced an uphill battle to keep his podium streak alive.
A slow-starting Wood and Kai Allen saw Brown muscle his way to ninth on lap 1, before Wood put his Walkinshaw Andretti United Ford ahead on lap 2.
Brown got past again and initially broke away, before Wood kept the battle alive and put a bold move on the reigning champ at Turn 6 on lap 10.
By that time, race leader and eventual winner Cam Waters was nearly 16 seconds up the road. A rapid 6.6s four-tyre stop — the quickest of the night — got Brown back in contention, with the Queenslander coming home fifth.
Speaking after the race, Brown said: “I had a good start. My first lap wasn't too bad.
"We sort of got in a really big battle with Ryan Wood and it was great racing, but unfortunately that hurts. Hurts your lap time, and it really hurts your tyres. So, we passed each other about four or five times.
“But overall, we did a really good strategy. We put four tyres on in the stop and was able to come back through the field and finish fifth.
"So, for a very tough night like tonight, it's a great recovery by the team and really happy with the strategy. The stop was really good by the boys.
“We just need to have a good look at our car overnight, tune it up, tune myself up in qualifying and then have another crack tomorrow.”
WAU posted an image of the lap 10 battle, as Wood hung Brown out to dry at Turn 8, accompanied by the caption, "The moment Woody won the battle last night."
Brown commented, saying, "Hasn't won the war though."
Wood stopped five laps after Brown, but fell away at the end of both stints and came home 11th on a day teammate Chaz Mostert — who started one position behind — raced from eighth to second.
"Qualifying was really good today, it was nice to be in the top 10, disappointed I didn’t quite piece it together in Part 2 but we have another shot tomorrow,” Wood said.
"I had some pretty fun battles out there with Will, the Mobil 1 Truck Assist Racing No. 2 didn’t quite have the race pace towards the end of each stint so it was hard to fight at the end there.
"We go again tomorrow, we have a bit of work to do overnight, we know we have the pace to be starting further up the field tomorrow, just got to piece it all together, looking forward to it."
Supercars will return to the track on Saturday at 2:35pm AEDT for Boost Mobile Qualifying, followed by the Boost Mobile Top Ten Shootout at 4:35pm.
The 200km Race 2 will commence at 7:30pm.
