Veteran driver Dale Wood was left in tears after his Bathurst 1000 dream was left shattered in the early stages of Sunday’s race, later admitting he was “absolutely spewing”.
Wood (co-driver for Andre Heimgartner) and Matt Campbell (co-driver for David Reynolds) were collected by Zane Goddard after he attempted to overtake Greg Murphy at The Chase.
In testing conditions though, Goddard locked up and ran long, losing control and “clean bowling” Wood and Campbell, as Neil Crompton said in commentary.
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All three cars were written off as a result, with Goddard coming under scrutiny from both Crompton and Skaife in commentary for the move.
“Bad re-join and another huge incident of the exit of The Chase,” Crompton said.
“This is going to be a disaster. Zane Goddard has driven back onto the road with dirty tyres and clean-bowled a heap of cars, including Winterbottom, Dale Wood and one of the Penrite cars. It’s an unbelievable scene.”
“Seriously. You can’t re-join out of control,” added Skaife.
“He out-braked himself slightly and then wants to get back onto the track. Now, when you’re there, you’re out of control. He had nowhere to go. Dale Wood had nowhere to go. Matt Campbell had nowhere to go.”
Crompton described the move as “deadset ordinary” and Wood was highly emotional after the incident, comforted by family with his race over.
“This whole build-up is about this one moment, going racing,” he said.
“I felt like we had a very good opportunity with this team and for it to be over so soon, it’s gutting. This is what you wait all year for, this is what you work towards, for it to be over so soon, I’m absolutely spewing.”
Goddard later came into the garage to apologise to Wood, with Skaife crediting him for his sportsmanship in the wake of the unfortunate incident.
“It’s exactly what Zane should do,” Skaife said.
“Credit to him for walking into that garage and saying, ‘Sorry mate, that was an accident that you had no part in and could not avoid’. Credit to young Zane for having the gumption to walk in and do that.”
Wood had set the pace in Practice 5 and was hoping for a better result this year after suffering a knee injury in the lead-up to the last Bathurst 1000.
