After an action packed second race that saw three safety cars, van Gisbergen taking up gardening duties and changing conditions, Chaz Mostert broke a six year streak held by Triple Eight and Dick Johnson Racing.
That streak of course is the championship lead and it is the first time in six years that a driver from a non Triple Eight Racing or Dick Johnson Racing team has had the orange number sticker on their car.
Mostert started back in 7th after a rain hit Top 10 shootout leaving Brodie Kostecki on Pole with Anton De Pasquale beside him on the front row. Cam Waters and Broc Feeney took up the next row on the grid.
Kostecki ended up with a poor start leaving De Pasquale to drive off ahead but behind these two were chaotic scenes in the opening laps with Macauley Jones and David Reynolds suffering punctures during a turn 4 melee, Will Brown and Shane van Gisbergen gained 12 and 9 places respectively however the latter decided his car might be best suited as a lawn mower and went off at the final corner to give the grass a trim.
Meanwhile Kostecki caught De Pasquale with Broc Feeney in tow.
Van Gisbergen’s day went from bad to worse with him being a lap down and the Red Bull Ampol Racing mechanics battling to get the left rear wheel secured during a pitstop.
Back at the front Kostecki was 3.1 seconds ahead of Feeney, De Pasquale and Mostert after previously having a covering time of just 1.8 seconds from Kostecki back to Mostert.
A joint effort by Garry Jacobson and Jake Kostecki brought out the safety car has Jacobson’s car gave out on the exit of Turn 3 and Kostecki stalling his car after a spin at the final corner. Luckily those behind him got past without hitting him as he stopped in a precarious position.
Nick Percat also added to the safety car drivers’ lap count when he attempted to overtake Scott Pye at Turn 7 that landed him in the gravel and no way out on lap 47.
Chaz Mostert took the lead after the 51 lap restart while driving on the Super Soft tyres when Kostecki and De Pasquale visited the pits.
Jack Le Brocq earnt himself a bad sportsmanship award as Broc Feeney found himself in a Matt Stone Racing Truck Assist sandwich. Feeney however was applauded for his car control when he was run wide into the grass and kept it controlled and back onto the track without further contact.
Feeney appeared to give Le Brocq a little “don’t do that again” tap which then saw Le Brocq move across on the main straight making contact with Feeney and debris showering over the track. Hazelwood appeared to move up next to Feeney to give him no way out of the melee.
With 14 laps to go, the sky opened as Mostert held a 5.6s lead. Kostecki, Slade, Winterbottom and van GIsbergen switched to wets on lap 65 while Mostert and De Pasquale went in on lap 66 to get theirs.
Jack Le Brocq was the final driver to trigger a safety car with his team opting to leave him on dry tyres after other teams had gone in for wets leaving him a passenger as his car went off at Turn 3.
Up ahead Mostert won the race by 2.7663 over Brodie Kostecki as Anton De Pasquale visited the wall on his way back to the pits to take up the final step on the podium.
In an odd moment, Winterbottom and Hazelwood finished the race in 12th and 13th but ended up in the gravel trap at the end of the main straight after the flag.
The next race will be the Ned Whisky Tasmania SuperSprint, at Symmons Plains on March 26-27.
