Bathurst 1000: Chaz Mostert wins second title in thriller over Shane van Gisbergen

On a day of drama headlined by a race stopping echidna, the Walkinshaw Andretti United driver put his famous team back on the map by powering his way across the line to finish in front of Cameron Waters and Brodie Kostecki.

Having had the fastest car over the first three days, Lee Holdsworth continued Car No.25’s Bathurst blitz by beating his rivals off the line to take the lap one lead.

Interrupted by a second lap safety car, the Holden driver then cut fastest lap after fastest lap to leave next best Garth Tander in his wake.

Lead driver Chaz Mostert continued the frightening display of speed when he began his first stint.

So fast that he had both fans and rivals fearing this year’s race would not be a contest, Mostert’s was cruelly struck down when a tyre failure sent him plummeting back to 12th place following a forced stop.

In one of the strangest stoppages in Bathurst history, a safety car was called on lap 105 when an echidna burrowed through a concrete wall and onto the track.

Cue the chaos.

An all-out war was declared at the restart with a flurry of metal on metal action setting the scene for a furious finish.

A staggering four safety cars were called onto the track with cars crashing and dreams dashed.

Having had their up-front fight interrupted by the series of stoppages, race leaders Mostert and Shane van Gisbergen were finally unleashed ... only for van Gisbergen’s tyre to delaminate with seven laps remaining, wrecking his title defence.

“A pretty tough race. When we did that tyre, I thought it would be a tough slog,” Mostert said.

“Credit to the guys, this car has been speedy all weekend.

“We started pole and we won the race. Every time you start on pole, you never think you will win it. Credit to this car. Credit to the team. I left it all out there.”

Van Gisbergen, who still lifted the Supercars championship trophy post-race, said: “It’s bittersweet, you know. Really tried to win that race. Congrats to Chaz and Lee and their team. They were super fast. Gave it everything, just couldn’t quite hold it together.”

EDDIE THE ECHIDNA A BATHURST FIRST

After 48 Bathurst 1000 campaigns, Mount Panorama legend Dick Johnson thought he had seen it all.

And then an echidna burrowed through a crack in a concrete wall, waddled onto the track, and stopped Australia’s greatest car race.

In literally a show-stopping Bathurst 1000 moment that grabbed global attention, Supercars drivers were forced to swerve at high speed to avoid hitting “Eddie” the echidna when the spike-laden creature attempted to cross the race-track.

“I have never even seen an echidna in Bathurst let alone on the race-track,” Johnson said.

“That is certainly one to add the long list of freak racing stopping oddities.”

Johnson knows a thing or two about track intruders after a stray rock famously cost him what would have been his first Bathurst win in 1980.

“I have seen plenty of strange things on the track over the years,” Johnson said.

“I have seen kangaroos, plastic bags, stray tyres and of course that bloody rock. I really thought I had seen it all but I should have known better given that Bathurst is a race that throws up everything.”

In a Bathurst that had been incident free since a lap two safety car, the echidna forced officials to stop the race on lap 105.

Spotted five laps before, race stewards were hoping the mammal would safely remove itself from the race track but were forced to intervene when it waddled its way onto the road.

With the safety car deployed and a rescue crew on route, the echidna then decided to leave on its own accord after somehow managing to cross the road without being hit by the cars that were hurtling past at nearly 200km/h.

The stoppage ignited what had been a dull race when crashes and chaos followed the safety car restart.

“Maybe eddie the echidna wasn’t enjoying the race,” Johnson said.

“He might have decided to do the fans a favour and liven it all up.”

In another first for the race, an albino wallaby also made a surprise appearance near the track.