AIRTOUCH 500 SHELL V POWER MOTORSPORT PARK WHERE EVERYONES A WINNER

September 15, 2026
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The 2026 Repco Supercars Championship headed west to Tailem Bend, on the shores of the mighty Murray River for the AirTouch 500.

Having already crowned Broc Feeney as the 2026 Sprint champion, Shell V-Power Motorsport Park hosted the opening round in the endurance season.

Chaz Mostert and Fabian Coulthard took home the silverware from the 2026 AirTouch 500, but in essence every driver was a winner. To finish with all cars largely intact after that deluge affected race was marginally short of a miracle.

The 24 full-time championship drivers were joined by two wildcards and a further 28 former series regulars or up and comers, with a Tickford Autosport Ford Mustang for Ben Gomersall/Campbell Logan and a Team 18 prepared Chevrolet Camaro with Craig Lowndes and Bayley Hall at the wheel for the 147 lap enduro.

And what a baptism of fire it proved to be.

After two days of mostly blue skies and rising spring temperatures, Sunday brought about a sudden, though not unpredicted, change in the weather.

Drops of rain neat the middle of the day turned from mild spits and spots to ever increasing dollops of precipitation that saturated clothing and skin alike with every hit.

The very nature of the downfall, which ebbed and flowed throughout the afternoon, saturated the ground. Large puddles formed on previously parched soil, with photographers down at Turn 1 forced under the television scaffolding and in search of higher ground as the waters rose beneath their feet.

The problems weren’t restricted to the outfield alone as the glazed tarmac soon glistened under layers of water that sat rather patiently for better conditions or the sponge effect of wet weather tyres to mop away the residue.

The final Touring Car Masters race began in such conditions with cars tip-toeing for fear of losing any semblance of grip. They increased to a trot and finally a near gallop as the rains eased and hopes for dry conditions gathered.

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Mother Nature had another plan.

The heavens opened once more as dark bands of clouds blew across from the Murray, sending the Carrera Cup field back to the pitlane for a rethink on rubber. Shod with the renowned Michelin wet weather tyres, the cars returned to the circuit behind the Safety Car just as another of those dark cloud bands dropped another soaking on the track.

It brought an end to the race as time demands for the Supercar race loomed ever closer.

No sooner than the Porsches had left the circuit the rain eased once more and stopped. It worked perfectly for the Supercars pre-race grid walk and television build up, lasting through to the race start itself.

But not much longer. It became a rather predictable pattern for much of the afternoon.

When Fabian Coulthard, a notable wet weather driver labelled it; ”Probably the most treacherous conditions I’ve ever raced in,” you can rest assured that the conditions were far more sinister than just bad.

Television images did little to portray the severity of the weather, only those Supercar tragic’s and foolhardy photographers had an inkling of the situation. One poor soul had the indignity of suffering a blistered thumb after his umbrella had been hit by lightning.

They breed them tough in South Australia.

At some stages, around the time of the Safety Car interruptions, visibility for photographers and fans were limited to the first few cars in the queue. After that a heavy spray of water vapour mixed with precipitation left a scene ore reminiscent of a London ‘pea soup’ than Shell V Power Motorsport Park. Images showed faintly hued images of cars immersed in an off-white haze.

If the situation was difficult enough to photograph, one can barely fathom the predicament drivers found themselves facing.

Add to the lack of visibility a questionable level of grip throughout the lap in a truly fluid (pardon the pun) situation.

As cars thundered down the front straight (yes another pun) the short shifting of the gearbox followed by intermittent bursts of over revs as the wet weather Dunlop tyres struggled to redirect the passage of waters.

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Just ask Tony D’Alberto. On lap 25 the waterlogged surface on the approach to Turn 1 could hold no more and three cars slid onto the tarmac outfield with a cushion of water between tyre and road.

Next came D’Alberto. He didn’t even make it to the corner as the #38 Shel V-Power Racing Ford Mustang snapped sideways and pirouetted down the track before nudging the concrete wall. Amazingly D’Alberto collected his thoughts and drove off with barely more than a gouge or two in the front air dam and a slightly deranged front guard.

Todd Hazelwood started the race from pole position in the #17 Shell V-Power Racing he shared with Brodie Kostecki, while Will Davison sat second in Matt Payne’s Penrite Racing Mustang with former Supercars and Bathurst 1000 winner Mark Winterbottom right behind in third.

The race start was marked by the rapid forward movements from Davison, Winterbottom and Slade, whilst equally notable was the rearward direction of Hazelwood.

The 2024 Repco Bathurst 1000 winner dropped to fourth in the opening lap and fell back to 17th by lap 10 with a lack of grip the mitigating factor. He later took to social media to explain those moments in a car which simply couldn’t find any grip in the predominant conditions.

“Wowee, that was brutal!” Hazelwood wrote. “Horrible start to the race, just didn’t have any grip to work with in the early stages. Felt like a mobile chicane out there and was flat out keeping it on the island.”

It was Davison and Winterbottom that fought over the lead at Turn 1, with Tim Slade aboard the second Penrite Mustang and Ruben Goodall in the Castrol Mustang already ahead of Hazelwood.

Davison’s time at the front was short after Winterbottom slid into the #19 at the exit of the corner, spinning Davison back to the rear of the field. That earned the Monster Energy Mustang a 15 second time penalty.

Whilst a hindrance under normal conditions, the combination of varying grip and visibility for those less accustomed to the Gen 3 Supercars saw the classic line of ‘more hits than Elvis’ as drivers right throughout the field received at least one 15 second time penalty for indiscretions.

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Red Bull Ampol racing co-driver Scott Pye received two such penalties, one for an opening lap collision with James Courtney that left the #888 with a puncture and a one lap deficit after the early stop. A latter 30 time penalty for a pit lane infringement added another obstacle to the Pye/Brown pairing as they fought their way back from 13th on the grid and that early incident.

Lee Holdsworth also received a 15 second penalty after tagging Nick Percat in the #88 Red Bull Ampol Racing Mustang on Lap 2. Further contact with Zac Best a sort time later had a much greater impact on Broc Feeney’s race.

Courtney, Bates and Percat all headed to their respective garages for repairs as another potential deluge fast approached.

In the meantime it was Tim Slade who stole the show. Fresh from his appearance at the Yokohama World Time Attack in a Supercar powered Datsun 1600, Slade shone in the wet conditions. The #26 Penrite Racing driver sailed away to a ten second lead from Richie Stanaway in the BRT Cooldrive Mustang by Lap 25.

His hard work soon proved to be rather futile as the worsening conditions brought out the Safety Car for the first of many weather related interventions.

After seven laps the green lights glowed once more with Slade now followed closely by Stanaway, Coulthard, Hughes and Winterbottom. There were more troubles for Nick Percat with damaged suspension after that hit from Best, while David Russell spun the #31 PremiAir Camaro after contact at the penultimate corner.

Slade ran wide at Turn 1 on Lap 37 which handed the lead to Coulthard, before another cloud burst saw the Safety Car return, just prior to the magic mark when co-drivers had completed their minimum laps.

Courtney still had 9 laps to go when he stopped and was sent back out, much to his bemusement as David Reynolds goaded him from the pit lane entry line.

He wasn’t alone. Such was the pace of the co-drivers and frequency of the Safety Cars, that many teams elected to run their secondary drivers for longer. That was particularly true for the #7 Cooldrive entry with Richie Stanaway excelling in the conditions and running far further than anticipated. It proved to be a little too far in the final wash.

Slade was back in front at the Lap 50 restart but was fortunate not to hit the pit wall after a massive aquaplane moment as he accelerated down the straight. Jarrod Hughes seized the opportunity and took the lead in the #9 Erebus Metalmaster Camaro.

That moment pre-empted yet another Safety Car for a further five laps.

Craig Lowndes endured two moment of mention at the restart. He first ran long at Turn 1 and skipped across the grass before almost becoming an innocent victim after a touch between Mostert and Nash Morris at Turn 11. That saw the #777 PremiAir car spin in front of the Supercheap Car, barely missing the left rear quarter of the Team 18 Wildcard Camaro.

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Hughes maintained the lead as the rain finally gave way to pockets of sunshine.

The soon had teams contemplating the shift to slick tyres. Erebus took that initiative to put Cooper Murray onto them as a tester for the sister car of Hughes and Stewart. Hughes stopped a lap later to hand over to Stewart while holding a 9 second lead over Mostert and Evans in the Walkinshaw TWG Racing Supras.

It was a great idea, though a tad too early given the slot car like contact strip on which they had to drive. Given the team’s pit stop strategy to date it was a move that had to be taken.

The worst of the conditions had well and truly passed by the time all main game drivers were behind the wheel.

Mostert and Wood, who’d now replaced Evans in the Truck Assist Toyota Supra held positions 1 and 2, with Allen some 8 seconds behind in third. Allen then spilt the two Supras after their final stops with a time certain finish now on the cards.

The gaps between the top 3 had settled as the races counted down the final ten minutes. Mostert was clear of Allen by more than 15 seconds, with Wood a further 7 seconds behind the Penrite Mustang.

It was the battle for fourth place which drew all the attention.

Ojeda had that positions ahead of a late surging Matt Payne, while Will Brown had overcome his teammate’s earlier penalties, spin, puncture and then an off-track excursion of his own to lie just behind the pair.

Payne got by with a bump and run on Ojeda, which seemed to have caused a performance related issue for the #31. Brown also got by and took off after Payne once more. Payne was given a 5 second time penalty for that moment which ultimately dropped the #19 Penrite Racing car to sixth at the finish.

Mostert took an 18.5 second margin over Allen to the chequered flag. Wood was third a further 9 seconds behind. Brown and Ojeda rounded out the top 5.

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“I can’t believe it,” Mostert exclaimed over the radio having taken out his first AirTouch 500.

“Firstly, the 500s been kicking me for years and years, come close but never achieved one,” Mostert later told Fox Sports.

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“Wet weather specialist, what a guru,” Mostert said of co-driver Coulthard.

“They wanted to put me in but I said, keep him out there, keep going, hell be fine. Just put me in for the fifty to the end. It’s good to clock up another win for the Toyota. “

The Supercars now head to the Mountain for the Bathurst 1000 enduro – we will have our full team there from Thursday.

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