Chaz Mostert has ceded a two-year run of attrition with his Saturday DNF at the NED Whisky Tasmania SuperSprint.
Mostert was the only retirement in Saturday’s Race 10, which was won by Erebus Motorsport’s Will Brown.
Starting 11th, Mostert made his way to eighth on lap 3 when he was turned by Red Bull Ampol Racing’s Broc Feeney at the Turn 4 hairpin.
Mostert was turned into the infield, with Feeney hit from behind by Team 18 driver Scott Pye.
Feeney carried on, avoided penalty and was classified 18th — but Mostert was forced out of the race with a steering rack failure courtesy of the incident.
It marked Mostert’s second DNF since joining WAU in 2020, and first since Tailem Bend 2021.
It ended a run of 63 straight finishes for the two-time Bathurst winner, discounting his DSQ from Darwin last season.
Only Shane van Gisbergen (83 races) and Cam Waters (64) now have the longest finish streaks, with Waters also involved in the Tailem Bend shunt.
Waters has the longest official streak, given van Gisbergen was disqualified from the Newcastle season opener.
“Not an ideal start to the weekend being taken out so early in the race,” Mostert said.
“We had a great start but because of the damage we couldn’t continue.
“The team will be hard at work tonight to turn the car around for tomorrow, eyes forward.”
Mostert dropped from second to fourth in the championship, with van Gisbergen and Brown moving ahead.
The WAU driver’s deficit to points leader Brodie Kostecki, however, only blew out from 100 to 124 points after the Erebus driver’s own incident.
Kostecki was implicated in his own incident after contact with Jack Le Brocq and later, Waters, at the hairpin.
The Mostert/Feeney incident occurred after Kostecki hit the Armco barrier, although both incidents went without punishment.
Cars will return to the track on Sunday with back-to-back qualifying sessions, which will set the grids for Races 11 and 12.