Wood denied Jason Richards Trophy in wild Christchurch decider

With seven laps to go, Wood’s Toyota Supra slowed out of the final corner before stopping on the front straight with a suspected engine issue.

That brought out the Safety Car and set up a grandstand finish with Grove Racing’s Matt Payne heading his teammate Kai Allen for a three-lap dash to the chequered flag.

Allen was given team orders not to fight for the lead of the race.

Oh no! Absolute heartbreak for Ryan Wood, who was just LAPS away from claiming the Jason Richards Memorial Trophy.#RepcoSC #Supercars pic.twitter.com/wQLoKmh8dd

— Supercars (@supercars) April 19, 2026

On the resumption of racing, Payne skipped away while his teammate fought to keep Triple Eight Race Engineering’s Broc Feeney at bay.

All eyes were on in fourth Feeney and Dick Johnson Racing Brodie Kostecki in sixth, who, in the wake of Wood’s failure, were level on points in the stakes for the Jason Richards Memorial Trophy.

Notwithstanding another late twist – fundamentally, whoever finished ahead of the other would win the title on a countback.

There need not be a countback, however. With two laps to go, Kostecki got to the inside of Mostert at Turn 2 and they rubbed doors.

Mostert closed the door on Kostecki approaching Turn 3 and forced the #17 Dick Johnson Racing Ford Mustang onto the grass and into a spin.

Kostecki spun at high speed across the grass and slid across the nose of Mostert’s #1 Walkinshaw TWG Racing Supra. Fifth-placed Will Brown had to take evasive action too, going across the grass in avoidance.

Parked on the corner exit, the trailing field only narrowly avoided hitting Kostecki’s idle Mustang.

In all of that melee, Mostert came out the other side in fourth but was handed a 30-second penalty for the clash that dropped him to 18th. Kostecki, meanwhile, fell to 17th.

While all that madness was unfolding, Payne was streaks ahead. All told, he was victorious over Allen by 1.1251s after 61 laps.

Third place for Feeney earned him the Jason Richards Memorial Trophy and with it assumed the lead of the Repco Supercars Championship

Brodie needed to make that pass and it’s resulted in DRAMA between him and Brodie Kostecki!! #RepcoSC #Sueprcars pic.twitter.com/fKX05OeXaG

— Supercars (@supercars) April 19, 2026

As the green flag waved to begin the formation lap, Cameron Waters’ went nowhere. He was dragged from his pit bay before returning to the pits.

From pole position, Payne got the jump on De Pasquale to get the holeshot into Turn 1 but best of all was Brown who surged from fourth to second by Turn 2 as third-placed Wood went nowhere.

Entering the esses, there was an accordion effect of cars going nose-to-tail into each other, which began with Triple Eight’s Jackson Walls drilling the back of Erebus Motorsport’s Jobe Stewart.

Walls was hit by Rylan Gray and then spun his Dick Johnson Racing Mustang.

Aaron Cameron’s top 10 qualifying was undone on the opening lap. He was slow away at the start and got swamped into the first turn.

As a result of his slow start, Cameron was mired in the madness at the back of the field and was caught in the Stewart/Walls/Gray clash.

Gray spun across the nose of Cameron’s Mustang and dripped the side of the Supercars rookie.

Cameron, Walls, and Gray were all relegated to the pit lane for repairs.

Payne led Brown at the end of Lap 1 when the Safety Car was drawn while the top 10 was completed by Allen, De Pasquale, Wood, Feeney, Kostecki, Golding, Mostert, and Murray.

Racing resumed on Lap 4 with Payne heading Brown and Allen.

There was contact behind them as Wood tried to usurp De Pasquale into TUrn 2 and they pair interlocked wheels.

As they tried to untangle each other, Feeney and Kostecki blew by them. Wood dropped to sixth and De Pasquale fell even further to 10th.

“That’s one of the dumbest manoeuvres I’ve ever seen,” De Pasquale radioed to his team.

Payne skipped away with the lead, leaving Brown to block an attack from Allen into the final turn. In a lap, Payne’s advantage grew to three seconds.

For the excessive blocking, Brown was given a warning by race control.

De Pasquale was the first top 10 driver to pit on Lap 8 from 10th. The value of an undercut was evident when Kostecki and Wood pitted on Lap 10 and usurped them both.

Pit stops continued in earnest. Allen pitted on Lap 12 and Brown on Lap 14, flipping their positions thanks to another undercut.

There was a noticeable divergence in strategies with Grove Racing, Triple EIght, and Walkinshaw splitting its two cars.

De Pasquale’s decision to pit early started to hurt. On Lap 18, he lost out to Kostecki and on Lap 19, lost out to Wood.

Feeney pitted on Lap 20 with a nine-second deficit to Payne and rejoined behind Kostecki, though it only took him a lap to get by the DJR driver.

Feeney continued his march forward on newer tyres with a pass on his teammate Brown into Turn 2 on Lap 24.

Payne finally pitted on Lap 24 from the lead and returned with the effective lead of the race with a three-second advantage lead over Allen.

Once the pit stop sequence was cleansed Payne led Allen to the tune of 4.5 seconds while feeney was another 2.3 seconds back. Brown was fourth and Kostecki fifth.

Mostert, who pitted on Lap 25, began to utilise tyre differential and displaced Wood for sixth. The top 10 was completed by De Pasquale, Le Brocq, and Heimgartner.

Just after half-race distance, Zach Bates tipped David Reynolds into a spin at Turn 4 – a move that dropped the Team 18 driver from 13th to 16th.

The second round of pit stops began on Lap 39. Brown led Kostecki to the lane and duly switched positions.

Allen pitted from second with a deficit to Payne of nearly 10 seconds with Feeney following him in.

Payne ran long at the front of the field and finally pitted on Lap 47 of 61, returning to the race with an advantage the length of the straight.

The gap to the lead was seven seconds while Feeney was 1.2 seconds in arrears of Allen. Mostert was fourth and up seven places from where he started while Kostecki was fifth.

With seven laps to go, Wood’s hopes of winning the Jason Richards Memorial Trophy were dashed when his car ground to a halt.

That set up a three-lap dash. Payne had his 10-second advantage whittled down to a car length, though he did not have to worry about a challenge for the lead as Allen was given a no-attack instruction.

Feeney completed the podium while all hell broke loose behind him as Mostert and Kostecki had their clash over fourth.

Blanchard Racing Team driver James Golding benefited from the carange, finishing fourth. Meanwhile, Cameron Waters was a standout for Tickford Racing from last.

Results: Repco Supercars Championship ITM Christchurch Super440, Race 4