Chaz Mostert has secured his place in the Supercars Semi Final at the Penrite Oil Sandown 500 after delivering a commanding victory in a rain-soaked opening outing of the Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500.
The reigning champion produced a phenomenal opening stint to take control of Saturday’s race, eventually claiming his third consecutive victory on the streets of Surfers Paradise in a dominant performance, while also securing Walkinshaw Andretti United’s 200th race win.
David Reynolds enjoyed his second podium for the year after taking out second place courtesy of a brilliant strategy and a five-second penalty to Repco Supercars Championship leader Matt Payne, who rounded out the top three.
Wet and wild conditions in the lead up to lights out forced the race to begin under the Safety Car, and following three laps, the field was released and Mostert took little time to replace pole sitter Broc Feeney at the front of the field with the pair changing positions before the first green lap was over.
While Feeney struggled to find grip and traction, slipping behind Friday’s provisional pole sitter Anton De Pasquale, Mostert charged out to a significant advantage over De Pasquale, who also enjoyed a decent buffer to the chasing pack.
Feeney then lost more positions after contact with Payne, allowing the championship leader and his Kiwi compatriot Andre Heimgartner to move ahead of the Red Bull Ampol Racing driver.
By the time Feeney made his first pit stop on lap 22, he had dropped to sixth behind a charging Brodie Kostecki, while the gap to race leader Mostert had grown to almost 30 seconds.
The reigning champion proved to be in a league of his own at the front of the field, building a lead of almost 20 seconds over De Pasquale during his opening stint, however it was the latter’s Team 18 teammate in Reynolds who emerged a podium contender having come out of the first round of pit stops in second place.
James Golding took the opposite approach, extending his first stint to 40 laps before rejoining in fifth behind Mostert, Reynolds, De Pasquale and Payne. However, a mistake at Turn 11 allowed Cam Waters to move ahead of the Blanchard Racing Team driver.
Golding’s teammate Aaron Cameron narrowly avoided bringing out the Safety Car when he spun through the Beach Chicane, lightly contacting the wall but escaping with only minor rear bodywork damage.
Reynolds and Zach Bates were among the first drivers to make their final pit stops, with both having benefited from early strategies. Kostecki also pitted early in the sequence, but an unforced error just before his lap 52 stop cost the 2026 Repco Bathurst 1000 winner valuable time, allowing Heimgartner and Bates to capitalise.
The race threatened to take another turn when Golding suffered a near-identical incident to his teammate Cameron at the Beach Chicane late in the race, striking the tyre wall and leaving his #7 Ford positioned perpendicular to the direction of traffic.
Bates narrowly avoided a significant collision as he made a hasty exit past the stranded Ford, but Golding was able to continue with only bodywork damage, allowing the race to remain green.
Golding was again the centre of the drama towards the final lap of the race as he and Cooper Murray collided at Turn 4, almost causing Mostert to crash into them from behind. However, the Queenslander navigated his way through the incident to secure a dominant 23-second victory and deliver Walkinshaw Andretti United its 200th race win.
The battle for second position then took a major twist when Payne was handed a late five-second penalty for exceeding track limits, and with Reynolds sitting just inside the five-second margin, the Team 18 driver pushed hard in the closing stages to cross the line just over four seconds behind Payne – the penalty promoting him to second place and delivering his first podium finish since Tasmania in May.
De Pasquale finished fourth ahead of Heimgartner, Will Brown, Kostecki, Waters, Feeney and Jayden Ojeda, who completed the top 10.
Further down the standings, there was costly drama for several Finals contenders, with Wood finishing 14th after struggling for pace, Le Brocq recovering only to 22nd after being spun early in the race, and Allen finishing 24th after an electrical failure forced him into a late third pit stop.
View the full results here.
Sunday’s final day of the Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500 begins with Boost Mobile Qualifying at 11:20am local time (12:20pm AEDT).