Chaz Mostert has taken only his fourth ever race victory this weekend at Queensland Raceway beating home Red Bull Racing’s Craig Lowndes and fellow Prodrive Racing Australia team mate Mark Winterbottom.
From the pole position Mostert quickly took command of the twenty five car field extending the gap Saturday’s double race winner Mark Winterbottom made a poor start. Winterbottom fended off an early charge from Red Bull Racing Australia’s Craig Lowndes and Jamie Whincup, allowing from team mate Mostert to charge ahead.
Andre Heimgartner again found himself in similar circumstances to yesterdays two twenty lap affairs, the Kiwi on the outside of a pair of cars and forced off the track.
With the longer nature of the race many pitted early in an attempt to undercut the leaders, however six times champion Jamie Whincup fell victim to a poor pit stop. A rattle gun on the right front failed costing Whincup valuable seconds in the stop.
Pit stop strategy for Craig Lowndes saw him leapfrog Winterbottom for second place on the road, Lowndes ultimately maintaining position in the uneventful race to claim second place.
Fourteenth and fifteenth place starters Garth Tander and James Courtney were the biggest movers of the race, the pair eventually finishing fifth and sixth respectively. A quiet race for David Reynolds saw him finish just off the podium in fourth.
After having run in the top ten for the majority of the race and with just fifteen laps remaining, Scott McLaughlin fell into the clutches of Jason Bright. The Brad Jones Racing driver ending the young Kiwis chances of a top ten finish. McLaughlin continued to fall finishing the sixty-five lapper in thirteenth place, one ahead of fellow countryman Fabian Coulthard.
After what had been a rather lonely race for Mostert which saw him consistently out front, the Pepsi Max racer came home six seconds ahead of Craig Lowndes with Winterbottom a further eleven seconds off the lead.
“The boys changed the clutch over night. It felt pretty good off the start line,” said Mostert following the victory. “Finally I got away without hesitating.”
Whincup, Bright and Moffat completed the top ten order. Andre heimgartner finished sixteenth, fellow Kiwi Shane van Gisbergen ending in twenty first. The series now heads to Sydney Motorsport Park over August 21-23