Bathurst 1000 2021 race result: Chaz Mostert wins thriller from Shane van Gisbergen

Chaz Mostert and Lee Holdsworth overcame a delaminated tyre, rogue echidna and six safety cars to claim a stunning Bathurst 1000 victory. Re-live all action from Mount Panorama.

Chaz Mostert defied the memory of the Mount Panorama crash that almost killed him, a blown tyre and a rampaging Shane van Gisbergen to become a two-time Bathurst champion.

In a legend-making moment that came just six years after he narrowly survived a horrifying 50G crash, Mostert erased the memory of his darkest day with the drive of his life.

Overcoming six lead erasing safety cars – one of them caused by a track invading echidna – the Walkinshaw Andretti United blasted his way into V8 folklore with an unstoppable drive.

“I am now a two-time champion and it feels awesome,” Mostert said.

Chaz Mostert has pulled out a magnificent drive to win the 2021 Bathurst 1000. Picture: Getty

“And it is full credit to my team because we had the fastest car all weekend.”

Also announcing himself and his team as a reborn force, Mostert overcame a series of setbacks headlined by a blown tyre to win another Bathurst 1000 classic.

Mostert had forced half the field off the lead lap when the blown tyre cost him 11 places.

“It was a pretty tough race,” Molstert said.

“I thought it was going to be another bad day when I blew that tyre. I had to change my driving style after I stopped because I was worried about blowing another one. I tried to protect them by not attacking the kerbs and that wasn’t easy to do when I was still trying to extract pace from the car.”

Strapped into a WAU rocketship, Mostert was forced to deal with four late safety cars when the race became an all out war.

“I didn’t mind all the safety cars because my car was really fast,” Mostert said.

Lee Holdsworth and Chaz Mostert celebrate the victory.

“It felt great all day and I was able to give it full beans on the restarts.”

“It was pretty tough when I had van Gisbergen breathing down my neck,” Mostert said.

The former Ford driver also conquered his mental demons by bravely conquering the track that almost ended his career.

Mostert suffered a broken femur, wrist and knee injuries in a horror 2015 crash, which registered 50G.

“I started hearing all these funny noises in my head when I got ten laps to go," Mostert said.

"I just had to ignore them and I managed to stay in front.”

Chaz Mostert sends a burnout.

Flawlessly backing up Mostert with inch perfect stints, WAU co-driver Lee Holdsworth finally fulfilled his lifelong dream of becoming a Bathurst champion.

Holdsworth was undisputedly the best performing co-drive on the grid in a performance which suggests he should still be driving full-time.

“It has been a dream this week,” Holdsworth said.

“It isn’t all going to sink in for a long time. It was just a perfect week. Everything went to plan and we rolled out with such a quick car. This team is so amazing. This has been a long time coming for me and I am just so stoked to get it. It is going to be a hell of a celebration.”

The emphatic victory announced the return of WAU as a force with the sleeping giant awakening to win another Bathurst crown.

An echidna appearance trigged a wild finish to this year's race.

 

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.

RE-LIVE ALL THE ACTION IN OUR BLOG BELOW

Originally published as Bathurst 1000 2021 race result: Chaz Mostert wins thriller from Shane van Gisbergen

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