We were on the edge of our seats for that one, but Chaz Mostert will continue the fight to defend his Supercars Championship title in Adelaide after securing a P5 finish today.

The morning kicked off with qualifying, where the timesheets incredibly tight, with both Chaz and Ryan narrowly missing out on the Top 10 Shootout. This meant Chaz would line up P11, with Ryan starting P16 for the final 250km race of the weekend.

Sitting in P3 in the Finals standings, Chaz needed a top-seven finish, provided DePasquale maintained his P2 qualifying position.

As the lights went out both drivers were on the attack, each gaining a position in the opening laps.

Ryan was one of the first drivers to pit, coming into the lane on lap 15. A quick stop from the crew that saw him jump Golding in the lane.

The Mobil 1 Optus Racing No. 1 was struggling for pace towards the end of the opening stint, with Chaz counting down the laps until he could come into the lane for fresh tyres.

Chaz finally got the call over the radio to come into the lane, he was one of the last to pit after the opening stint. This meant Chaz’s final two stints would be shorter, allowing him to push hard and attack.

With the way the championship standings in mind, Chaz needed to finish the race in P7 or higher. Sitting in P11 after the first round of stops, he quickly began making his way forward, gaining another position just a few laps later.

Ryan was running in P9 and showing strong pace before letting Chaz through, effectively turning his focus to supporting his teammate as Chaz’s wingman.

With 35 laps remaining, Chaz had worked his way up to P7, the position he needed to secure his place in the Finals. With one of the fastest cars on track, he had his head down and ready to keep pushing forward.

The Mobil 1 Truck Assist Racing No. 2 was the first of the field to come into the lane for its final stop, rejoining the field in some clear air to push.

Chaz followed a few laps later for four tyres, re-joining the field in effective P6. Within five laps, he had caught the rear bumper of Randle and made the move to take P5.

With the points shifting in Chaz's favour under the 'win and you're in' rule, De Pasquale was now on the wrong side of the bubble in second position. He was doing everything he could to hunt down race leader Payne, with the gap coming down to less than a second with just three laps remaining.

The final few laps were nerve-racking, with the leaders catching the back of the field and having to navigate their way through traffic and the gap between DePasquale and Payne getting down to half a second with one lap to go.

As the checkered flag waved, Chaz had crossed the line P5, with DePasquale finishing P2. The result secured enough points for Chaz to book his place in the Supercars Grand Final.

What an incredible achievement for Chaz, who now have the opportunity to defend his championship title in the team’s first year running the Toyota GR Supra in the Supercars Championship.

It was a tougher day for Car 2, with Ryan crossing the line in P16. The crew opted for a different strategy, bringing him in for earlier stops to mix up the order, but ultimately, the car lacked the pace to move further up the field.

Next stop is the Adelaide Grand Final in a few weeks’ time. Thank you to everyone for all of their support across the year and this weekend, we will be doing our best to make you proud in Adelaide.

Chaz Mostert

“We had to fight tooth and nail to do everything we could to try and get to the Grand Final and it went all the way down to the last lap.

“We made it pretty hard for ourselves with a couple of tough qualifying sessions but somehow we are going to the Grand Final, we are going to give it our best shot to try and defend our title.

“I am super honoured to go there in the Mobil 1 Optus GR Supra and it being Toyota’s first year in the category, to have a car in the Grand Final is a massive achievement to this team and the brand.”

Ryan Wood

“A very tough one for us this weekend, we tried something in that last race and it felt like at times it was pretty decent.

“We have to dig deep and figure out on my side what’s going on so we can be fighting further up the front.

“Really cool opportunity to have a Toyota in the Grand Final with Chazzie, for me, I just need to work on finding that rhythm and pace again.”