The 21-year-old Walkinshaw Andretti United driver finally converted his obvious speed into a trophy, eight races into his second Supercars season.
Wood had raised expectations of a breakthrough performance by topping practice on Friday, after which he declared a new, more patient approach for qualifying.
He managed fourth on the grid for the weekend’s opener and appeared set to finish in that position until a late dive on Anton De Pasquale two laps from the finish netted P3.
“It’s pretty special to be honest,” said Wood, who finished fourth in two races during his rookie season, including in the opener at Taupo.
“I always drive hard, and today I felt like I drove a really great race. I felt like I was aggressive when I needed to be aggressive — and the car was so fast.
“Kudos to everyone here at WAU for sticking by me, it just feels amazing to get a podium. A little bit of a monkey off the back.”
Wood said he was spurred on in the dying stages by the local support and the knowledge that Payne was set for the win.
“I felt the home crowd,” he said.
“It was pretty intense there when I got to Anton and I was just like, ‘if we can get two Kiwis [on the podium], we better’, so I went for it.
“It was kudos to Rich (engineer Richard Harris) for coaching me through that race.
“We’re learning on the fly and he was telling me to look after it and I was going faster and faster and I was like, ‘I think I’m looking after it’.”
Harris had been in the thick of the action during a mid-race Safety Car period, seen remonstrating with officials and briefly visiting the Tickford Racing garage.
That was in an effort to have Tickford’s Thomas Randle reposition ahead of Wood, having exited the pits and narrowly beaten the WAU driver to the Safety Car control line.
Wood conceded the place under yellow flags but wasted no time taking it back on the restart with a superb dive under brakes into Turn 1, before also making his way past Jack Le Brocq.
From there the Kiwi set about chasing De Pasquale, who had jumped to third behind Payne and Cam Waters during a round of pit stops under Safety Car.
Wood and Payne embraced post-race before standing side-by-side on the podium.
“Everyone knows that we’re good mates,” said Wood, who was the only driver to spray the champagne on the podium ahead of a second race later in the afternoon.
“To see him win and control that race the way he did, for me, I had to work pretty hard and come through…
“It just felt like old go-karting times except we had a Monster car that we’ve both watched on TV since we were seven between us.
“It was a pretty cool race and hopefully we can do a bit more of this podium stuff as the year goes on.”
Wood is set to start this afternoon’s second race of the weekend from 12th place.
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