Chaz Mostert has kept his hopes of securing back-to-back Supercars championships intact by winning a rain-soaked opening race of the Gold Coast 500.
The Walkinshaw TWG star finished first by a massive 23.461 seconds in dismal conditions during the 85-lap 250km race on Saturday, to underline his status as the competition’s form driver.
With rain tumbling down at the Surfers Paradise Street Circuit, the safety car was summoned for the opening three laps, but Mostert made his move when he overtook pole-sitter Broc Feeney on the inside lane on lap four going into turn 14.
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From there, he streaked away and cruised to his fifth race win on the Gold Coast and third of the season.
Most significantly, last year’s champion has qualified for the next round of finals at Sandown, as the winners of Saturday’s and Sunday’s 250km races earn a spot, regardless of their overall standing.
It will be a welcome relief for Mostert, who went into the weekend ranked eighth and knew that after the Gold Coast, the bottom three in the top 10 who fail to win a race are eliminated.
Where the real drama unfolded on Saturday was in the battle for the minor podium positions as Feeney’s ambitions of winning an elusive first race at his hometown grid faded as his tyres had temperature issues.
While the Triple Eight Race Engineering driver watched his rivals pick him off, non-finalist David Reynolds emerged as a shock contender when he found himself in second spot after taking his first pit stop on lap nine.
Matt Payne edged in front of the Team 18 driver after the championship leader pitted for a second time on lap 60.
But in a twist, the Grove Racing star was hit with a five-second penalty for exceeding track limits, and Reynolds finished within that time frame to snag second.
Elsewhere, Kai Allen had a disastrous race as he battled through helmet air issues and finished last.
Ryan Wood’s finals hopes dwindled as the Kiwi came 14th, while Matt Stone Racing’s Jack Le Brocq was 22nd after slipping off the track early.
Wood and Le Brocq are ninth and 10th in the standings, respectively, and will need to do exceptionally well in Sunday’s race or be eliminated.
Other finals contenders, Will Brown (sixth), Brodie Kostecki (seventh), Cam Waters (eighth) and Feeney (ninth) finished behind the fourth-placed Anton De Pasquale and the fifth-placed non-finalist Andre Heimgartner.
RACE 31 RESULTS:
1. Chaz Mostert (Walkinshaw TWG Racing)
2. David Reynolds (Team 18)
3. Matt Payne (Grove Racing)
4. Anton De Pasquale (Team 18)
5. Andre Heimgartner (Brad Jones Racing)
