Chaz Mostert hits the front with third straight win

Chaz Mostert moved into a slender lead in the race to secure the Supercars championship title with victory in the opening race of the weekend at Sandown – giving the Walkinshaw Andretti United driver a third win in a row.

Mostert added to this double win last time out on the Gold Coast to take a three point lead over Broc Feeney in the points, with the Ford racer making the most of the revision to the Supercars scoring system changes to overhaul the long-time points leader.

Had the system remained as it was previously, Mostert would still be playing catch-up in the standings but the move to a play-off system and recent strong performances ensured he went into the opening Sandown race well in contention for honours.

Mostert qualified on the front row of the grid for the first 250km race alongside team-mate Ryan Wood but grabbed the lead at the start to hit the front, with Brodie Kostecki slotting into third spot from Anton De Pasquale and Kai Allen.

Feeney meanwhile had started down in seventh spot and found himself running in the midfield pack in the opening stages.

Positions remained static at the front through the early laps before Matt Payne overhauled Allen for fifth, and he was then the first driver to dive into the pits having been unable to find a way to get ahead of De Pasquale for fourth.

That resulted in the remainder of the field diving in for the first time and whilst Wood emerged from the first round of stops at the front, he quickly allowed Mostert to reclaim the lead and settled in behind as rear gunner.

Feeney meanwhile had climbed into third spot shortly after the stops with a move on Payne, whilst his team-mate Will Brown was on a charge through the field after a miscalculation in qualifying had seen him fail to make the top ten.

Mostert retained the lead after the second round of stops where Brown was one of the last drivers to pit, meaning he was out on fresher tyres than his rivals.

As Mostert raced to victory, Brown reeled in team-mate Feeney before taking third and then managed to overhaul Wood for second – although the gap to the leader was now too large to overcome.

Mostert’s win allowed him to move ahead of Feeney after he was left to finish the race in fourth place, with Kostecki and Payne rounding out the top six.

Of the other drivers still in contention for the title under the finals system, Allen took seventh but it was a tough race for Tickford Racing as Cam Waters could only finish back in twelfth and Thomas Randle was 16th – meaning the pressure is on the pair going into race two if they want to remain in contention for the Adelaide season finale.