Repco Australia Superlastcar Championship: Late Race Engine Failure leaves Mostert last at Hidden Valley as last-minute changes mix up the field.

Saturday, 20 June 2026

Late Race Engine Failure leaves Mostert last at Hidden Valley as last-minute changes mix up the field.

Credit: Supercars

Chaz Mostert (#1 Mobil 1/Optus Toyota) finished last for the 12th time in his career. The finish came after he retired with engine failure after 66 of the race’s 70 laps. The finish came in Mostert’s 402nd start.

Chaz Mostert is a veteran of the sport, now in his 12th full-time season. 2015 would’ve been a full-time season, but had a massive crash at Bathurst 2015 that snapped his leg in half and ended his season. He raced in 26 races in 2013 for Dick Johnson Racing, then moved to Ford Performance Racing/Rod Nash Racing/Tickford Racing for 6 years. Mostert moving to Walkinshaw Andretti United in 2020. Despite a few up and down seasons, Mostert inherited the 2025 Repco Supercars Championship after Red Bull Racing choked it away with engine issues. Mostert had a rough start to 2026, including a last-place finish thanks to a disqualification for a tyre sensor breach. This finish came in the second Sydney Motorsports Park race. Mostert was 4th in Practice 2 and Qualifying. Mostert slipped to 5th in the Top 10 Shootout.

Two driver changes happened before the race.

Todd Hazelwood substituted for Brodie Kostecki (#17 Shell V-Power Ford) before qualifying. Hazelwood qualified 13th and finished 12th despite a late-race Clutch failure.

Mark Winterbottom substituted for Thomas Randle (#55 Castrol Ford) after qualifying.

This meant Mark Winterbottom (#55 Castrol Ford) started last and would start from the pit lane.

Todd Hazelwood (#17 Shell V-Power Ford) spun Declan Fraser (#777 Nulon Chevrolet) on Lap 2, dropping to last.

By lap 11, Fraser had dropped 20 seconds behind the leaders.

That lap, pit stops start.

Jayden Ojeda (#31 Nulon Chevrolet) pitted and fell to last.

Todd Hazelwood (#17 Shell V-Power Ford) pitted and fell to last the next lap.

Cooper Murray (#99 Total Energies Chevrolet) pitted on Lap 15 and dropped to last.

Jobe Stewart (#9 Solo Energy/7-Eleven Chevrolet) pitted on Lap 17 and fell to last.

Mark Winterbottom (#55 Castrol Ford) stalled after his pit stop, losing nearly 20 seconds.

Rylan Gray pitted again on lap 40, dropping to last.

Cooper Murray would pit again on lap 43, dropping to last.

Jobe Stewart (#9 Solo Energy/7-Eleven Chevrolet) pitted on Lap 45 and dropped to last.

Jackson Walls (#11 Objective Ford) pitted on Lap 47 and fell to last.

Mark Winterbottom (#55 Castrol Ford) pitted on Lap 49 and fell to last, a lap behind everyone.

With 4 laps to go, Chaz Mostert (#1 Optus/Mobil 1 Toyota) pulled over at Turn 2 with engine failure. This triggered a safety car, which would end the race.

Jackson Walls (#11 Objective Ford) and Mark Winterbottom (#55 Castrol Ford) had pit stop issues.

Zach Bates (#10 Bendix Chevrolet) plunged from 14th to 21st after a 5-second time penalty.

Cooper Murray (#99 Total Energies Chevrolet) completed the bottom five.

The Bottom Five

Chaz Mostert	66 Laps	Engine
Jackson Walls	69 Laps	Running
Mark Winterbottom	69 Laps	Running
Zach Bates	70 Laps	Running
Cooper Murray	70 Laps	Running

Driver’s Championship

Pos	Driver	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Jackson Walls	3	8	11
2	Cooper Murray	3	6	9
3	Aaron Cameron	2	3	8
4	Chaz Mostert	2	2	3
5	Jack LeBrocq	2	2	2
6	Jobe Stewart	1	8	12
7	Ryan Wood	1	2	4
8	David Reynolds	1	2	3
9T	Cameron Hill	1	2	2
9T	Matt Payne	1	1	2
11	James Golding	1	1	1
12	Brodie Kostecki	1	1	1
13	Macauley Jones	0	5	6
14T	Declan Fraser	0	3	5
14T	Rylan Gray	0	2	6
16	Kai Allen	0	2	2
17T	Andre Heimgartner	0	2	2
17T	Zach Bates	0	1	4
19T	Thomas Randle	0	1	2
19T	Broc Feeney	0	1	1
21	Will Brown	0	0	2
22	Jayden Oeda	0	0	1
23	Mark Winterbottom	0	1	1

Team’s Championship

Pos	Driver	#	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Overdrive/RBR Racing	1	3	7	10
2	Erebus Motorsports	2	4/2	14/2	22/2
3	Walkinshaw Andretti United	2	3/2	4/2	6/2
4	Blanchard Racing Team	2	3/2	5/2	10/2
5	Matt Stone Racing	2	2/2	4/2	7/2
6	Brad Jones Racing	3	2/3	7/3	10/3
7	Grove Racing	2	1/2	3/2	3/2
8	Team 18 Racing	2	1/2	2/2	3/2
9	Dick Johnson Racing	3	1/3	4/3	8/3
10	Premair Racing	2	0	5/2	7/2
11	Tickford Racing	3	0	2/3	3/3
12	Red Bull Racing	2	0	1/2	3/2

Manufacturer’s Championship

Pos	Manufacturer	#	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Chevrolet	8	8/8	27/8	44/8
2	Toyota	5	4/5	9/5	15/5
3	Ford	11	7/13	20/13	31/13

No comments:

Post a Comment

How Juniorgeneric defines a Last-Place finisher

Australian V8 LASTCAR'S Official Definition of a "Last-Place Finisher" (LPF)

For the purposes of the Australian V8 LASTCAR championship rankings and statistics, a "Last-Place Finisher" (LPF) is a driver(s) who, after qualifying for a V8 Supercars Championship Points-Paying race, the result must be confirmed from official sources, or unofficial sources failing that. Only one driver (or two in a endurance race) can be classified as the LPF for that race.

Meeting those requirements, the LPF can be any driver classified as such for any reason, including, but not limited to.
1) A "did not start" although it should be noted that there is a difference between my definition of "did not start" and Brock Beard's definition of "Did not Start".
For example, in Bathurst 2015 Chazz Mostert and Cameron Waters' #6 Pepsi Max Ford had a huge accident during practice that injured Mostert and all but wrote off the car. Car #6 was withdrawn, and therefore I don't count Mostert and Waters as finishing last. Under Brock Beard's definition, however, Mostert and Waters would have finished last instead of David Wall and Chris Pither.
2) An entrant who encounters an event once the race has started which prevents the driver(s) from finishing ahead of any other qualified entrants, including both DNFs and drivers who finish under power but laps down*

*Only when all the cars in the race are running ahead of the LPF

3) A decision to “start and park” the driver’s entry (Extremely rare in V8 Supercars)
(4) a disqualification handed down by V8 Supercars and/or track officials that subsequently classifies the driver(s) in the final position behind the unofficial LPF.

Australian V8 LASTCAR shall not consider the LPF as anything else, including but not limited too
1) Any DNQ's
2) Any driver's who's car withdrew before the race start.
3)The lowest-ranked driver who finishes the race under power (unless all cars finished under power, actually quite common in V8 Supercars)
4) A driver(s) who finished last initially, however post-race disqualifications usurped the spot.
5) A driver(s) who may be catagorised as finishing last for exhibition events (I may bring these back at some point in the near future, I need more accurate numbers for the events before I start them up again)
6) Anything in non-V8 Supercar Main game (again, insufficent historical data)
7) A driver who was running last when the checkered flag fell, however because they greeted the checkered flag but a drive who was in front of them at the end of the race, however was not running at the end of the race. In that instance the driver who doesn't finish the race will fall behind the driver whom is still running at the end of the race.

In the rare event where official results or a preponderance of unofficial results are later updated with more accurate information about who was the LPF for that event, Australian V8 LASTCAR rankings and statistics shall be updated to reflect that change.