Mostert was spotted by TV cameras wandering through the paddock camp ground and up to the makeshift bar on Conrod Straight during the race, before waving to Scott Taylor Motorsport co-driver Cam Waters, who was in the Mercedes at the time.

It was a call-back of sorts to Mostert’s viral moment during the Bathurst 1000 after his car stopped right outside Robbo’s bar with a mechanical failure.

In that case he drowned his sorrows by drinking a beer with Robbo and his hoards of guests.

On this occasion there was no beer drinking, given Mostert had to get back behind the wheel of the STM entry.

So what was he doing there?

According to Mostert, it was all about getting a rise out of Waters after some banter in the garage about who would battle intermittent cool suit issues and do the final double stint.

“All of this banter was going on in the garage, between me, Tom [Randle] and Cam,” Mostert told Speedcafe.

“Some of our driver cooling stuff wasn’t working efficiently, so we were all joking that, ‘you’re going to do the double [stint] home’, ‘no you’re going to do the double stint home’.

“The team was telling Cam under safety car that I’d already gone up to Robbo’s and found myself a Better Beer. So I went up there to wave to him and get in his head. He was flashing his lights at me. It was really quite funny.

“So that was the reason why I went up there nice and early. I’ve got a few friends up there as well, so it was nice to say g’day real quick.”

The STM Mercedes of Mostert/Waters/Randle endured a rollercoaster race day, starting from pole and looking in contention until a mid-race spin at the Cutting when Randle was at the wheel.

That forced two unscheduled stops for repairs and left the car three laps off the lead.

The trio did manage to fight back and, helped by the wave-by rules, returned to the lead lap heading into the final hour of the race.

Hopes of a shock comeback win were then dashed when Mostert and Jayden Ojeda clashed at Griffins Bend, which put both AMGs out for good.