The 2022 Supercars championship got off to a chaotic start in Sydney, where debilitating humidity and intermittent rain challenged drivers on their first weekend back in the cockpit.
So tricky were conditions that even reigning champion Shane van Gisbergen wasn’t immune, with a pair of high-profile Sunday offs derailing a hitherto imposing weekend.
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These are the key talking points from a sometimes wet and almost always wild weekend in Sydney.
MOSTERT BANISHES DEMONS, BREAKS WALKINSHAW DROUGHT
Chaz Mostert emerged from a chaotic wet-dry Sunday race victorious for Walkinshaw Andretti United to take control of the championship standings for the first time in his Supercars career.
It’s the first time in six seasons a driver from a team other than Triple Eight and Dick Johnson Racing is at the top of the table.
It was an important result for driver and team not only to fire up their campaign strongly but also to banish the demons of 2021.
Despite three victories last year, the best Mostert could manage in 10 races at Sydney Motorsport Park was third — albeit spectacularly from the back. The team recorded an average finishing position of 12th.
WAU hasn’t won in Sydney since 2008, so you can imagine how flat WAU must’ve been when SMP was announced as the opening round of the new season.
But from the moment Mostert and teammate Nick Percat rolled down pit lane from first practice on Friday, it was clear the team had made its hoped-for step forward in Sydney.
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There’s room for improvement in single-lap pace — Mostert made both shootouts but with a best finish of seventh — but in-race car 25 rescued third from eighth on Saturday night before converting seventh to victory on Sunday, with an aggressive first lap, rising from seventh to fourth, the foundation of his result.
A perfectly judged final restart in heavy weather, keeping at bay former leader and maiden victory hopeful Brodie Kostecki, was all he needed to do to claim a season-opening win.
“What a weekend for us,” he said. “A third and a first — I didn’t really expect that coming here after last year.
“Super stoked or the whole team.”
The only sour note was a patchy weekend from Nick Percat, who backed up a strong Saturday result — 14th to eighth — with a ditching in the gravel on Sunday afternoon. But the team was effusive in its praise for the effect his inclusion has on its preparation for the race, and there’s undoubtedly more to come from this new combination.
WAU sits third in the teams championship, 66 points behind first-placed Dick Johnson Racing, while Mostert leads Anton de Pasquale by 12 points.
KOSTECKI PLANTS FLAG FOR EREBUS
Up until the final third of Sunday’s race, the day had belonged to Brodie Kostecki, who had secured a super first career pole position with an excellent shootout performance in mixed conditions.
It wasn’t a surprise for the sophomore Erebus man, whose best race result before this weekend was second place at Sandown last year, also in wet conditions.
Pole wasn’t the advantage he would’ve wanted off the line in the afternoon race — intermittent rain had put the dry line on the opposite side of the grid, and Anton de Pasquale used it to great effect to seize an early lead.
But the second lap he’d put his tardy start right, and his steady control of the race under pressure from Broc Feeney on the softer tyre, the weather changing throughout, made clear he was ready to record his first victory.
But it wasn’t to be. A series of safety cars compressed the field and wiped out his advantage, and he was made quick work of by the supersoft-shod Mostert on lap 52.
He held on for a nonetheless commendable second from De Pasquale.
Erebus’s five late-season podiums last year, including third at Bathurst, teased at the team’s growing strength, and both Kostecki and Will Brown are now in their second seasons in the main game and growing in confidence.
Fifth and seventh on Saturday followed by second and eighth on Sunday puts the team second in the championship standings.
YOU CAN’T COUNT ON THE WEATHER — JUST ASK SHANE VAN GISBERGEN
The first round of the season was a wild ride for reigning champion Shane van Gisbergen, and the Kiwi’s Saturday dominance contrasted starkly with an uncharacteristically scrappy Sunday.
The connecting thread between the two results was rain.
The weather was the dominant talking point of the weekend, including on Saturday night, when forecasters promised rain before the chequered flag.
Combined with uncertainty around the durability of the supersoft tyre in the 300-kilometre race, most drivers defaulted to conservative two-stop strategy to reduce the chance of being caught out by a sudden late shower.
But Triple Eight threw caution to the wind that seemed in fact to be blowing the storm away from the circuit, switching its champion early to the considerably faster three-stop strategy that delivered him a dominant 20-second victory.
It was a reminder that it’s usually better to race to the prevalent conditions rather than hope the radar becomes reality.
But the weather gods were less kind on Sunday.
He qualified a lowly 21st after leaving the track in mixed conditions, and he almost bogged himself in the grass early in the race in a sudden downpour in a pair of unfamiliar errors. A switch to wets then proved untimely, and there appeared to be disagreement between the cockpit and pit wall about whether to continue haemorrhaging time in the hope of rain or cut losses in a switch back to slicks.
Getting lapped forced the decision in favour of slicks.
His race should’ve been over there, but four safety car restarts kept him in touch, and a strong stint on supersofts and timely switch back to wets late had him take the chequered flag sixth.
It was a typical Van Gisbergen recovery to a very untypical day at the office — and again a reminder that it’s all too easy to get caught up predicting weather rather than racing to the conditions.
FEENEY STARS ON TRICKY TRACK
Broc Feeney arrived in Sydney with a load of pressure on his shoulders, but the rookie and Super2 champion will hold his head high after a commendable debut performance on a difficult weekend.
Qualifying and finishing 10th on Saturday was a decent first effort, but in more difficult wet conditions on Sunday he excelled. He qualified fourth on Sunday after teammate van Gisbergen struggled to 21st, and his opening stint of the race was very strong, sticking with leader Brodie Kostecki early and holding a podium place until mid-distance.
Unfortunately the first safety car restart undid all that good work, with a gaggle of more experienced drivers swallowing him into the midfield, leaving him to finish 11th.
“Everyone’s trying to give me a hard time,” he told the Supercars website. “I’ve got the big target on my back this year.
“I’m in the car that everyone sort of wants to be in and I’m this young kid as well.”
It’s expected treatment — team boss Jamie Whincup even admitted he used to be guilty of it as a series senior.
“I must admit I was guilty of pushing the young kids around!” he admitted on Saturday. “That‘s just the way it goes.”
As a consolation Feeney takes home a fastest lap, recorded during the more competitive first half of Sunday — perhaps a reminder of what’s to come once he settles into his new full-time role.
TICKFORD HAS WORK TO DO
There’ll be few teams to leave SMP more disappointed than Tickford. Freshly expanded to four cars, the team had high hopes of making a step forward on last year’s inconsistent form and particularly disappointed Sydney performances, but only the weather saved it from total despondency.
The quartet managed a best qualifying result of 15th in the dry, while championship hopeful Cameron Waters was a lowly 22nd, albeit recovering to 11th in the race behind James Courtney in ninth.
Only in the difficult mixed conditions of Sunday qualifying were Waters and Courtney able to crack the shootout, qualifying third and eighth for returns of fourth and 17th. Teammates Thomas Randle and Jake Kostecki were classified 14th and 24th respectively
Rain tends to be a great leveller, even if it can also add a random element to proceedings, so while Sunday’s upturn in results may soften the blow, there’s no doubting the weekend was a poor result overall.
Tickford struggled at this circuit last year, but after 10 races and associated sessions worth of data to prepare for the 2022 opener, to walk away with a relatively paltry 513 across four cars will be wake-up call ahead of the next round in Tasmania. With Erebus presenting a well-rounded offensive at the front, the Campbellfield can’t take its customary third in the standings for granted.