Mostert gets first win for WAU

Chaz Mostert has taken his first victory with Walkinshaw Andretti United, in Race 8 of the Repco Supercars Championship at the Beaurepaires Tasmania SuperSprint.

Mostert effectively led all 44 laps of the weekend’s final encounter at Symmons Plains while, 10 seconds further back, Dick Johnson Racing duo Anton De Pasquale and Will Davison rounded out the podium.

Those two ran down Cameron Waters in the latter three laps and the Tickford Racing driver finished fourth, ahead of Triple Eight Race Engineering team-mates Jamie Whincup and Shane van Gisbergen.

With that, van Gisbergen’s championship lead over Whincup has fallen slightly again to 139 points, while Mostert consolidates third in the title race.

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The latter had qualified second and, on the clean side of the track, nailed the start in his #25 Mobil 1 Appliances Online ZB Commodore.

He took a clear lead over pole-sitter Waters (#6 Monster Energy Mustang) to Turn 2, where De Pasquale (#11 Shell V-Power Mustang) wrested third from Zane Goddard (#35 Yellow Cover ZB Commodore).

Davison (#17 Shell V-Power Mustang) also went past the Matt Stone Racing pilot when they got to the Hairpin, while van Gisbergen (#97 Red Bull Ampol ZB Commodore) got by David Reynolds (#26 Penrite Mustang) on the run up the back straight on Lap 1 to take up seventh position.

That put him just behind Whincup (#88 Red Bull Ampol ZB Commodore), who van Gisbergen dived at on Lap 5 at the Hairpin and out-dragged Car #88 up the back straight.

He was catching Goddard when Triple Eight called #97 into the pits on Lap 8, before Davison and Whincup took their service on the following lap.

Both got out ahead of van Gisbergen, while Waters had drifted to around 1.1s behind Mostert when he and De Pasquale pitted from second and third respectively on Lap 10.

Goddard was into the lane from a nominal second position on Lap 12, rejoining the race track behind van Gisbergen in an effective seventh.

Mostert was catching traffic when he ceded the lead to take his compulsory pit stop on Lap 13 and resumed with about 2.5s on Waters.

That was the effective top two, followed by De Pasquale, Davison, Whincup, van Gisbergen, and Goddard, with a touch over 30 laps remaining.

While Goddard copped a hit from Reynolds at the Hairpin on Lap 21, and Davison had a nervous moment when he touched the dirt there on Lap 29, barely holding out Whincup as he gathered it up, the front-runners remained in the same order.

That was until Whincup let van Gisbergen go past on the back straight on Lap 38, while Mostert had gapped the field to the tune of 10 seconds after 40 laps.

By then, it became clear that Waters was holding up the DJR and Triple Eight cars, with De Pasquale blazing past the #6 Mustang on Lap 42 as they ran towards Turn 6.

Davison did much the same a lap later, consigning Waters to fourth at the chequered flag, while the Triple Eight drivers swapped positions back right at the end.

Up the road, the official margin of victory was 10.2002s, with Mostert scooping a full 105 championship points having also set the fastest lap.

Goddard held on to seventh position, from Reynolds, and James Courtney (#44 Boost Mobile Mustang).

Nick Percat once again made big gains relative to where he started, hauling the #8 R&J Batteries ZB Commodore all the way to 10th from 20th on the grid.

Next up is the OTR SuperSprint at The Bend on May 8-9.

Results: Race 8, Beaurepaires Tasmania SuperSprint

Pos	Num	Team/Sponsor	Driver	Car	Laps	Race time
1	25	Mobil 1 Appliances Online	Chaz Mostert	Holden Commodore ZB	44	38:52.9975
2	11	Shell V-Power Racing Team	Anton De Pasquale	Ford Mustang GT	44	39:03.1977
3	17	Shell V-Power Racing Team	Will Davison	Ford Mustang GT	44	39:04.1664
4	6	Monster Energy Racing	Cameron Waters	Ford Mustang GT	44	39:05.1436
5	88	Red Bull Ampol Racing Team	Jamie Whincup	Holden Commodore ZB	44	39:05.6080
6	97	Red Bull Ampol Racing Team	Shane van Gisbergen	Holden Commodore ZB	44	39:06.3837
7	35	Yellow Cover Racing	Zane Goddard	Holden Commodore ZB	44	39:08.0942
8	26	Penrite Racing	David Reynolds	Ford Mustang GT	44	39:08.8209
9	44	Boost Mobile Racing	James Courtney	Ford Mustang GT	44	39:09.9259
10	8	R&J Batteries	Nick Percat	Holden Commodore ZB	44	39:10.3593
11	18	IRWIN Racing	Mark Winterbottom	Holden Commodore ZB	44	39:12.2261
12	3	CoolDrive Racing	Tim Slade	Ford Mustang GT	44	39:12.5392
13	19	Local Legends	Fabian Coulthard	Holden Commodore ZB	44	39:12.8956
14	20	DEWALT Racing	Scott Pye	Holden Commodore ZB	44	39:15.8800
15	9	Erebus Motorsport	William Brown	Holden Commodore ZB	44	39:18.6828
16	14	Scandia Racing	Todd Hazelwood	Holden Commodore ZB	44	39:19.1641
17	2	Mobil 1 Middy’s Racing	Bryce Fullwood	Holden Commodore ZB	44	39:19.5667
18	99	Erebus Boost Mobile Racing	Brodie Kostecki	Holden Commodore ZB	44	39:20.8861
19	5	Truck Assist Racing	Jack Le Brocq	Ford Mustang GT	44	39:25.7790
20	96	Coca-Cola Racing	Macauley Jones	Holden Commodore ZB	44	39:25.9722
21	34	UNIT Racing	Jake Kostecki	Holden Commodore ZB	44	39:26.8083
22	7	NED Whisky Racing	Andre Heimgartner	Ford Mustang GT	44	39:27.2733
23	4	SCT Motor Sports	Jack Smith	Holden Commodore ZB	44	39:27.8688
24	22	Team SYDNEY	Garry Jacobson	Holden Commodore ZB	44	39:30.8933

Fastest lap (bonus): Chaz Mostert 0:51.7604, Lap 17

Drivers’ championship

Pos	Driver	Pts
1	Shane van Gisbergen	865
2	Jamie Whincup	726
3	Chaz Mostert	700
4	Cameron Waters	663
5	Will Davison	623
6	Mark Winterbottom	587
7	David Reynolds	474
8	Anton De Pasquale	462
9	Nick Percat	439
10	Brodie Kostecki	437
11	Andre Heimgartner	430
12	William Brown	430
13	Scott Pye	428
14	Todd Hazelwood	395
15	Jack Le Brocq	392
16	James Courtney	380
17	Bryce Fullwood	379
18	Zane Goddard	350
19	Jake Kostecki	332
20	Fabian Coulthard	268
21	Tim Slade	264
22	Jack Smith	246
23	Macauley Jones	226
24	Garry Jacobson	221

Teams’ championship

Pos	Car(s)			Team	Pts
1	88	97		Triple Eight Race Engineering	1591
2	11	17	100	Dick Johnson Racing	1085
3	2	25		Walkinshaw Andretti United	1043
4	6	44		Tickford Racing	1043
5	18	20		Team 18	1015
6	7	26		Kelly Grove Racing	904
7	9	99		Erebus Motorsport	867
8	8	14		Brad Jones Racing	834
9	34	35		Matt Stone Racing	682
10	19	22		Team Sydney	489
11	4	96		Brad Jones Racing	472
12	5			Tickford Racing	392
13	3			Blanchard Racing Team	264