SVG, Mostert DNFs hand finish record to Waters

Last weekend's NED Whisky Tasmania SuperSprint played host to two rarities: DNFs for Shane van Gisbergen and Chaz Mostert.

Van Gisbergen and Mostert both failed to finish a race at Symmons Plains, putting dents in their respective championship bids.

Heading to the betr Darwin Triple Crown, Mostert and van Gisbergen are 166 and 171 points away from the series lead.

The saving grace for the veteran duo is that championship leader Brodie Kostecki also dropped points.

Kostecki finished 23rd in the same race Mostert was wiped out after contact with Cam Waters at the hairpin.

It’s now Waters who owns the longest finish streak in Supercars, at 66 races.

Waters has finished 66 consecutive races since his last DNF — an incident that also involved Mostert.

Heading to Tasmania, Waters and Mostert had seen the chequered flag in 63 consecutive races since they crashed out at The Bend in 2021.

The Tasmania incident led Mostert to just his second DNF in 103 starts since joining Walkinshaw Andretti United in 2020.

For van Gisbergen, it was just his seventh DNF in 220 starts since joining Triple Eight in 2016.

Van Gisbergen’s streak officially ended when he was disqualified in Newcastle, but he had seen the chequered flag in 83 straight races since his last DNF in Townsville 2020.

However, that was due to a power steering failure. The last time van Gisbergen crashed out of a race? The qualifying Sandown race in 2019, when he clattered into Anton De Pasquale.

Kostecki is now second on the finish streak list, having finished 51 consecutive races since he crashed out in the rain at Sydney Motorsport Park, also in 2021.

Remarkably, that is the only DNF of the Erebus Motorsport driver’s 76-race full-time Supercars career.

Of the 25 full-time drivers on the 2023 grid, 12 have already suffered a DNF this season. 10 others suffered at least one DNF in 2022.

The outlier is Penrite Racing rookie Matt Payne, who has yet to suffer a DNF in his young Supercars career.

The van Gisbergen and Mostert streaks weren’t the only long runs that have ended in 2023.

Mark Winterbottom’s run ended at 73 races when he crashed out at Albert Park earlier this season.

Winterbottom’s previous DNF came at Tailem Bend in 2020, when he was wiped out in a multi-car incident.

The 2023 season will resume with three sprint races on June 16-18 at the betr Darwin Triple Crown.

Tickets for the event are on sale now.

Longest finishing streaks (2023 full-time drivers)

*Hazelwood disqualified from Race 3 at Albert Park

**2023 rookie, 2022 Repco Bathurst 1000 co-drivers