Mostert wins topsy-turvy Supercars Race 2 at SMP

Chaz Mostert has won a topsy-turvy second race of the 2022 Repco Supercars Championship at Sydney Motorsport Park as Shane van Gisbergen salvaged sixth from a lap down.

Mostert moved into the lead shortly after the second Safety Car period of the race, exploiting the advantage of the super soft tyres on his #25 Mobil 1 Optus ZB Commodore, and was running away with the contest.

However, there was another twist when rain which had been intermittent through the afternoon began to set in with around 15 laps to go, and then got heavy enough to force the majority of the field onto wets.

The Walkinshaw Andretti United driver survived a fourth restart after Jack Le Brocq came unstuck while trying to snatch a surprise victory on slicks, with the podium completed by Erebus Motorsport’s Brodie Kostecki and the Shell V-Power Racing Team’s Anton De Pasquale after 77 laps of racing.

Red Bull Ampol Racing’s van Gisbergen went a lap down after an early spin and a switch to wets which proved premature, but got back on the lead lap with the second Safety Car and then hauled his way from 18th to sixth.

However, it is Mostert who leads the championship for the first time in his career, with a 12-point gap to De Pasquale and another 15 points over van Gisbergen at the completion of the Beaurepaires Sydney SuperNight event.

Pole-sitter Brodie Kostecki (#99 Boost Mobile ZB Commodore) was on super soft tyres for the start but a soft-shod De Pasquale sat on the clean side of the road and he made a very strong getaway to lead the field to the first corner in the #11 Mustang.

Broc Feeney (#88 Red Bull Ampol ZB Commodore), also on super softs, took up third position and Mostert fourth from seventh on the grid, just ahead of a wild pack of cars.

Lee Holdsworth (#10 Penrite Mustang) emerged fifth at the end of the standing lap, Will Davison (#17 Shell V-Power Mustang) had been shuffled back from fifth on the grid to 11th, and van Gisbergen (#97 ZB Commodore) was up to 16th after qualifying 21st.

Brodie Kostecki and Feeney both cleared De Pasquale on Lap 2, and the former managed to stave off the Triple Eight rookie when he ran wide at Bond Bend (Turn 2) on Lap 5.

Rain began to fall at that time and had become somewhat heavier when van Gisbergen chucked Car #97 off the road from 12th position at the final corner on Lap 7.

He immediately pitted for wets, and Holdsworth was among those to emulate him in the laps which followed, resuming in 17th position, but most of the rest persevered on slicks.

That majority was proven to have made the right choice when van Gisbergen was lapped by the front-runners on their 13th lap, the rain having eased off again, and the 2021 champion would be back into the pits a lap later.

He reverted to his earlier set of slicks in what was a very untidy stop, Car #97 having to be raised again to get the left-rear corner on properly, with Holdsworth and others also reversing out their earlier change over the next few laps.

The top three had been ebbing and flowing, sometimes covered by less than a second, before Kostecki moved his lead over Feeney beyond two full seconds on Lap 16 as the rain eased some more.

Scott Pye (#20 Seiko 5 ZB Commodore) began to close up to Mostert in a genuine battle for fourth among two drivers on the soft compound, before pitting for another set of softs on Lap 24.

De Pasquale stopped from third, 3.5s off the lead, on Lap 25 to change to super softs and take on a reported 75 litres of fuel.

Brodie Kostecki was into the lane a lap later to switch to softs and take on 62 litres of fuel before resuming 11th, behind two relatively early stoppers in Mark Winterbottom (#18 Irwin Tools ZB Commodore) and team-mate Will Brown (#9 Boost Mobile ZB Commodore), who had got off his super softs.

Feeney ceded the lead when he took his first service on Lap 28, going onto softs as well as also taking about 75 litres of fuel, and he rejoined a spot behind De Pasquale.

Van Gisbergen pitted from 21st on Lap 28 for his set of super softs, rejoining still at one lap off the lead.

Brown passed Winterbottom for an official second position on Lap 30 at Turn 9, with a bump, and he led moments later when Jake Kostecki (#56 Tradie Mustang) spun on his own at the final corner.

A Safety Car was called on Lap 31 after Jake Kostecki’s engine stalled, and Garry Jacobson came to a halt between Turns 3 and 4 with low oil pressure in the #76 Subway ZB Commodore.

Winterbottom pitted to get off his super softs, with Mostert among those to also take the opportunity to get into the lane again after his initial Lap 27 stop.

Brown reportedly missed a call to pit and continued to lead on a relatively old set of softs, from Brodie Kostecki (softs), Pye (softs), De Pasquale (super softs), Feeney (softs), Will Davison (#17 Shell V-Power Mustang, super softs), and Cameron Waters (#6 Monster Energy Mustang, super softs) in seventh, with Winterbottom (softs) in 11th, Mostert (softs) in 13th, and van Gisbergen (super softs) a lap down in 19th.

The rain picked up again as the restart came on Lap 35, at which point De Pasquale picked off Pye at Bond Bend.

Brodie Kostecki overtook Brown for the lead six corners later and De Pasquale blazed past Car #9 at the end of the lap, while Davison eventually passed Feeney for fifth on Lap 38 after being rebuffed once by the rookie.

Waters got underneath Feeney on Lap 40 at Turn 8, at which point Brodie Kostecki sat 1.5s up the road from De Pasquale despite only being on the soft compound, with the rain having by then stopped again.

Davison and Waters were on the rise on their super softs, the former up to third when he overtook Brown on Lap 46.

At the end of that lap, Brown pitted from fourth and Feeney from sixth on the sight of Nick Percat (#2 Mobil 1 NTI ZB Commodore) parked in the gravel off Turn 7, after a clash with Pye.

The Safety Car was called on Lap 47, prompting virtually everyone else to also take service under the full-circuit yellow flag, although James Courtney (#5 Opposite Lock Mustang) and Holdsworth inherited the top two spots by staying out.

Brodie Kostecki rejoined in third and De Pasquale in fourth, despite the latter being only around a second behind just before the Safety Car and having been suspected to have a three-plus-second fuel advantage.

They were both on softs, while Mostert was fuelled to the end on super soft tyres in fifth position, from Tim Slade (#3 CoolDrive Mustang, softs), Winterbottom (softs), Andre Heimgartner (#8 R&J Batteries ZB Commodore, super softs), Waters (softs), and Feeney (softs).

Davison (softs), whose #17 Mustang bore several battle scars, had dropped to 15th due to a double stack, while van Gisbergen (softs) used the Safety Car to get back onto the lead lap and sat 18th.

At the Lap 51 restart, Mostert made light work of De Pasquale, before those two and Brodie Kostecki cleared Holdsworth through Turns 05 and 6.

Brodie Kostecki took the lead from Courtney on Lap 52 at 05, but Mostert followed him through and then used his super soft tyres to grab first position for himself at Turn 7.

Courtney and Holdsworth continued to fall down the order as Heimgartner barged his way past De Pasquale and into third position on Lap 53 at Bond Bend.

However, he could not skip away from #11 despite being on super softs, and De Pasquale reclaimed third spot at Corporate Hill on Lap 55.

Slade overtook Heimgartner at the start of Lap 57, before the rain returned around Lap 59, as Mostert’s lead over Brodie Kostecki grew towards three seconds.

The WAU driver was five seconds up on Lap 63 as the shower over Eastern Creek got heavier, with Holdsworth and Courtney making early changes to wets from deep in the field.

Brodie Kostecki stopped for wets from six seconds behind Mostert on Lap 65, and was followed into the lane by Slade and van Gisbergen, among others.

Almost everyone else did likewise a lap later, including Mostert and De Pasquale, the latter having had to be called via pitboard due to losing radio communications.

Matt Stone Racing left Le Brocq (#34 Truck Assist ZB Commodore) out, however, and at the end of Lap 67 he had a 22.0s lead over Mostert, 26.8s on Brodie Kostecki, and 31.7s on De Pasquale.

Heimgartner, Waters, Winterbottom, Slade, Davison, and van Gisbergen, all of whom had gone onto wets, rounded out the top 10 at that point.

MSR’s gamble failed to pay dividends, with Mostert charging past Le Brocq at the end of Lap 70, at which point Brodie Kostecki was 4.4s behind.

Le Brocq held second only until he understeered off the road and became stuck in the gravel at Turn 3 on the next lap, drawing the third Safety Car of the race.

It compressed the field with Mostert leading from Brodie Kostecki, De Pasquale, Waters, Heimgartner, and Davison, while van Gisbergen had climbed to seventh.

He grabbed two spots just as the Safety Car was called when Slade and Winterbottom made contact through Moffat Corner, the former dropping to eighth and the latter to 11th.

Brown sat ninth and David Reynolds (#26 Penrite Mustang) was 10th, the latter having also made an impressive recovery after losing a tyre in a Lap 1 clash with Macauley Jones (#96 Automotive Superstore ZB Commodore).

The contest restarted on Lap 75 and Mostert gapped Brodie Kostecki to the tune of 1.4s on that lap alone, while van Gisbergen got by Davison for sixth.

Up the road, Mostert clinched a 2.7663s victory over Brodie Kostecki, while De Pasquale crashed into a wall on his way back into pit lane on the cool down lap after securing another podium.

Waters remained fourth and Heimgartner fifth, from van Gisbergen, Davison, Brown, Reynolds, and Slade, with Feeney 11th.

Winterbottom and Todd Hazelwood (#35 Truck Assist ZB Commodore) made the finish in 12th and 13th respectively but then somehow ended up in the gravel together after the chequered flag.

All ended up being classified except for Jacobson, with the top 17 finishing on the lead lap.

The next event is the Ned Whisky Tasmania SuperSprint, at Symmons Plains on March 26-27.

Results: Race 2, Beaurepaires Sydney SuperNight

Drivers’ championship

Teams’ championship