Trackside report: 2025 Bosch Power Tools Perth Super 440

Ella Dingwall is a high school student with dreams of becoming a motorsport journalist. She is a fan of Mobil1 Optus Racing who follows the team throughout the year. She recently watched the 2025 Bosch Power Tools Perth Super 440 and has shared with us her latest trackside report.

Supercars made the trip out west this past weekend to the sunny Wanneroo Raceway, just 40 minutes from the city centre of beautiful Perth, Western Australia for the 2025 Bosch Power Tools Perth Super 440.

The race weekend kicked off on Friday, with two practice sessions for the drivers to get up to speed with the track and make any setup changes before qualifying, and races one and two the following day. 

The two WAU boys rolled out of the truck relatively quick, with Chaz finishing 7th and 6th in each practice session and teammate Ryan Wood finishing 2nd and 12th, and some homework to do overnight to unlock a little more speed around the short 2.4 km track. 

Even though the cars and drivers had some pace, I’m not even sure they expected what was to follow! Chaz and Ryan repeated history with a front-row WAU lockout in back-to-back years, with Chaz claiming his first pole position for the season. The second qualifying session didn’t go Chaz’s way, leaving him to start just outside the top 10 in 11th.

Ryan Wood was able to beat Chaz off the start, squeeze by, then lead the race in the first stint. By making tough strategy calls and holding off a charging Will Brown by 0.6 seconds, Ryan Wood was officially a Supercars Race Winner! Chaz came home 3^rd, giving the WAU team their 301st podium in Supercars. With such an incredible (and emotional) result for the team in the first race of the day, hopes were high for race two, with Ryan starting from pole and Chaz within touching distance in 11^th. 

Race two was a chaotic one, with Wood leading and heading to what he thought and hoped would be victory number two before suffering a freak mechanical failure and going straight through the final corner, ending up off the track and nursing it back to pitlane on lap 22. After an unforgettable race and the highest of highs just a few hours earlier, Wood experienced the lowest of lows, unfortunately leaving him to DNF race 2 of the weekend.

Chaz drove the wheels off the Optus Mobil rocket and pulled through with another 3rd, bringing home an excellent result for the team after such a heartbreaking result for Wood.

Sunday hosted the last qualifying and race of the weekend, along with the introduction of the top 10 shootout for the first time that weekend. Ryan was able to make it into the top 10 for the shootout, qualifying in 6th, then 7th after the shootout, while unfortunately, Chaz was left to settle for 14th, but confidence in the car's race pace.

The final event of the weekend saw the first safety car at the track in years after Cooper Murray’s Chevy had an engine failure with 20 laps to go, giving Penrite Racing’s Matt Payne and Blanchard Racing Team’s James Courtney a cheap pitstop, delivering BRT their first podium in the team’s history. After the safety car restart, Ryan unfortunately got tangled in some push and shove, resulting in PremiAir Racing’s James Golding punting Ryan off the road and into the barrier, ending what could’ve been a stellar weekend for Ryan Wood. After good race pace, strategy calls, and some luck, Chaz brought the Mobil One Optus Racing Mustang home in 6th, a solid result after an up-and-down weekend for the WAU team.

Supercars head to the Top End next, with a short turnaround to the Darwin Triple Crown scheduled for June 20th- 22nd. The teams will all be releasing new indigenous liveries for Darwin, and I can’t wait to see what the Optus rocket looks like this year. The countdown is on!

Read Ella’s previous report of the Supercars 2025 kickstart in Sydney.

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