A LOOSE wheel cost Chaz Mostert the chance to break up Triple Eight’s stranglehold atop the Supercars standings.
Mostert was on course to finish the opening race at Taupō in second place behind Andre Heimgartner before the right-rear wheel of his #25 Mobil 1 Optus Mustang came loose, in what has been deemed an error and not a component failure.
After limping back to the pits, Mostert brought the car home a lap down in 22nd.
The issue cost him 99 points (138 for second versus 39 for 22nd) and second in the championship, as he would have dispatched Broc Feeney as Will Brown’s nearest threat.
But it was not to be, and Mostert is instead 83 points behind Feeney and further 59 adrift of Brown.
“Obviously it wasn’t the ideal thing to happen. We were running in a good position and we came out of the last stop and something didn’t feel quite right,” the Walkinshaw Andretti United star said on the broadcast this morning.
“I just thought it was a cold tyre and then a lap later decided my car would only have three wheels, not four.
“It happens, you see it plenty of times where little things just don’t go your way and you have just got to rebuild today.
“It’s another prime opportunity to try to get another trophy. The car has been fast, the crew has been working really hard in the off-season.
“It is a bit of a kick in the shins but you have got to be resilient and you have got to move forward.”
The good news for WAU was rookie Ryan Wood, who started Race 1 in fifth and finished fourth.
The 20-year-old Kiwi did however rue a mistake that allowed Anton De Pasquale by to nab third.
WAU is now fifth in the teams’ championship.
