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MOUNT PANORAMA — May 9, 2026
Two of Supercars' biggest teams are in a race against the clock after practice accidents left both cars badly damaged at Mount Panorama. Ryan Wood's #2 Walkinshaw Toyota Supra took a heavy left-side hit measured at 42g, while Tony D'Alberto put the DJR Ford into the wall at The Dipper. With Boost Mobile Qualifying on the horizon, the grid could shrink from 25 to 24 cars if either entry cannot be returned to full race condition in time.
Wood's incident happened midway through the morning session and immediately focused attention on the safety performance of the current-generation Supercars chassis. The New Zealander stepped out of the car without assistance, but the Toyota was not so lucky. The left side took most of the damage, and the impact briefly launched the car into the air before it settled back onto the circuit.
"Obviously sorry to the crew," Wood said. "Last thing I wanted to do, but first crack on greens around here, you know what it's like."
The apology was genuine, and it was also pointed. Bathurst is a place where a small mistake can turn into an enormous workload. His crew now faces a significant repair window with no extra practice time available.
"The boys will work pretty hard, and that's what I feel, just think about, is it's just given them so much work that they really didn't need," Wood added.
He was also quick to credit the team and the safety package for allowing him to walk away from a crash that could have been far worse.
"Kudos to our team. They do everything by the book, and to have a 42G impact like that and be able to walk away is pretty good," he said.
The stakes for Wood extend beyond this weekend. He has not formally locked himself into the 2026 Finals, and losing track time at Bathurst could be crucial if the championship order tightens over the closing rounds. Every session counts, and the #2 crew now needs to hustle just to make the next one.
The damage at Dick Johnson Racing is equally serious. With Rylan Gray's co-driver Tony D'Alberto at the wheel, the DJR Ford reached The Dipper and simply did not grip. A slide through the fast, off-camber section spat the car toward the outside, and the front rail bore the brunt of the impact.
"I had a big slide down the Dipper and spat me out," D'Alberto radioed to his team.
Once the car was back in the garage, D'Alberto was clear that the physical toll was minimal.
"I'm absolutely fine. No dramas at all," he told the broadcast.
His explanation for the accident was straightforward. Mount Panorama's surface had been a talking point since Thursday, with dust being dragged onto the racing line from cars running wide in the mountain section. Drivers were arriving at corners without complete confidence in the level of grip they would find.
"It actually wasn't that big a mistake," the two-time Bathurst podium finisher continued.
"It just had a bit of a slide going through The Dipper, and then when the car landed, it just sort of rebounded to the right-hand side, and that was all she wrote."
That "small" slide was enough. The front rail damage to the DJR Ford is not the kind of issue that can be waved away with tape. It is a structural repair, and the team will need to be methodical under serious time pressure.
The accident also hurts Rylan Gray, who had been building momentum through the weekend. D'Alberto was quick to point out that Gray had found a rhythm after a tricky opening day.
"Feel really bad for the guys. The car is nice and strong, and Rylan's doing a really good job today as well. He's really stepped it up. Yesterday was a bit tricky, but he sort of found a bit of rhythm," D'Alberto said.
The setback is especially frustrating because Gray had done the hard part: staying out of trouble and improving his speed as the track evolved. Now he and D'Alberto are hoping the engineers can restore the car to a state that allows them to race rather than simply survive.
The schedule does not allow any breathing room. Practice 4 is due at 1:15pm AEDT, with the all-important Boost Mobile Qualifying following at 4:10pm. That may seem like enough time, but at Bathurst there is no such thing as a simple repair. Chassis alignment, steering geometry, suspension replacement and panel work all need to be perfect before a car can be pushed again.
If either team is unable to get back out, the session will run with 24 cars instead of 25. That changes the dynamic for every other team on the circuit. Traffic patterns are different, tyre management strategies shift, and the margins for error in qualifying become even thinner.
D'Alberto summed up the mood with a reminder about the circuit's brutal nature.
"This sets us back a little bit, but unfortunately here, the smallest of mistakes just have the biggest consequences. And we've seen down the hill this weekend, lots of dust being dragged onto the track," he said.
"You sort of come over each lap not exactly sure what you're gonna get, and unfortunately, that lap was a little slipperier than the previous lap."
The initial response from both camps is expected to be intense. No formal decision has been made about whether the cars will be withdrawn, and both teams are still working against the clock rather than accepting the worst-case scenario. The repair crew workload is substantial, but Bathurst teams have a long history of pulling off near-impossible turnarounds.
This is also the kind of situation that can decide a weekend before the racing even begins. For Wood, the goal is simply to get back into the #2 car and give the team a result that justifies the overnight effort. For Gray and D'Alberto, the priority is returning the DJR Ford to the grid with a front end that will hold together across the mountain's heavy braking zones.
So the qualifying picture remains uncertain. The only certain thing is that two well-funded, well-prepared Supercars teams are now sweating on repairs, and the mountain has already claimed its first victims of the weekend. By the time Boost Mobile Qualifying arrives, the survival story could be as important as the outright pace story.
