Pleasure and pain for Mostert in 400th race

Milestone race curses have seemingly struck everyone and anyone in Supercars lately. Even those with the #1 on their door, and at the top of their game, aren't immune.

When Chaz Mostert was sitting fourth early in Race 18, he knew the #1 Mobil 1 Optus Toyota Supra he had underneath him had something for the front of the field.

And then the curse struck: in a weird twist of fate, it was his teammate's Ryan Wood's demise, water pouring out of a failed water pump after a catastrophic power steering failure, that brought Mostert undone.

Cam Waters, Matt Payne, and Brodie Kostecki were all aware of the fluid on the racing line entering Turn 5. Mostert was not, and careened through the scenery. Fourth turned to 14th in an instant.

But, then Mostert did what he does best: overtake. In his 400th career start, it seemed fitting that a Mostert charge would pull a result out of the fire, eventually finishing sixth.

Yet, when Mostert climbed out of the #1 Toyota, there was a sense of what could've been, with what he described as one of the best Gen3 cars he'd ever driven underneath him.

When the 34-year-old was asked if a podium had gone begging, he replied: "I mean, the car pace and the car was amazing, so yeah, no doubt.

"Definitely gutted for the guys and girls here at Walkinshaw TWG Racing. I think definitely a didgeridoo [trophy] was on the cards.

"I don't know if it was all the way at the top step, but that early mistake was just pretty costly.

"But, as gutted you are at the result, it's always pretty awesome when you get to drive a fast, fast Supercar, and that's up there with one of the coolest Gen3 cars I've driven.

"So as much as we're gutted with the result, it shows good speed for tomorrow. So we'll see if we can translate from the Super Soft to the Soft and see if we have another crack tomorrow."

On a day where Brodie Kostecki and Thomas Randle both required medical treatment, Mostert was feeling fresh after a race of more than an hour and 40 minutes in temperatures exceeding 30.

"Actually, I don't feel too bad, and I was just saying to someone, when the car does what you want it to do, and it's in sync with you, it's not as physical," Mostert continued.

"But when you have a bit of a misbalance around here, you can get out really feeling quite, quite rough. I didn't feel like I did 200k's, I felt like I could've kept going.

"But then I've had 200k's around here where I'm like, 'I wish it stopped at 100.'

"So I'm glad the guys and girls gave me an awesome car, and we'll be back tomorrow to have another crack."

The final day of the 2026 betr Darwin Triple Crown begins with Boost Mobile Qualifying at 10:45am local time/11:15am AEST.