Chaz Mostert charges to victory at the Gold Coast

Chaz Mostert charged from fourth on the grid to win an eventful first Supercars Championship race of the weekend at the Gold Coast.

Mostert’s team-mate Ryan Wood headed the field from pole position as the lights went out, but the Walkinshaw Andretti United driver later received a black flag for a fuel leak and had to retire.

A first safety car session came on lap 12 as sponsor boards at Turn 1 had come loose.

This saw a flurry of pit stops, with several teams double stacking their cars, creating traffic jams and contact between cars in the pits.

One of the drivers getting stuck was Mostert who tried to push Kai Allen out of the way before making contact with Matt Payne who was released into the path of the Ford Mustang driver.

Payne was handed a 15-second penalty for the unsafe release.

The safety car was soon back out on track after the restart as Cooper Murray went into the wall following prior contact with Aaron Cameron that caused a puncture.

The third safety car session came as a tyre stack had come loose at Turn 1.

The final stages of the race saw Mostert making a strong move on Tickford Racing’s Cameron Waters for second and four laps later Triple Eight’s Broc Feeney for the lead.

Mostert emerged in third place after his final pit stop behind David Reynols and Allen, two drivers trying a different pit stop strategy to make it without a final stop.

Mostert was quick to pass them both to win the race by a comfortable 7.6 seconds over Feeney.

Penrite Racing driver Allen claimed the final podium position ahead of Waters and Will Brown while Anton De Pasquale rounded off the top six.

The field returns for qualifying and the second race of the weekend tomorrow, with Race 29 starting at 14:10 local time/06:10 CET.