Chaz Mostert has "wingman" Ryan Wood to thank after punching his ticket to the inaugural Supercars grand final in a frenetic finish to the opening race of the Sandown 500.
Wood held off the rampaging Red Bull of Will Brown to give his Walkinshaw Andretti United teammate a clear run through to the chequered flag for his third straight race victory.
Starting Saturday's 250km race on pole alongside Mostert, Wood twice vacated the lead for his WAU teammate before his late-race tussle with reigning series champion Brown.
The win secured Mostert the first spot in the four-driver grand final round in Adelaide and moved him to the top of the championship standings, ahead of Broc Feeney by three points.
With five laps to go, Brown clearly had Wood for pace and attempted to dive down the inside of turn one.
But the young New Zealander had already been eliminated from the finals series in the previous round at Gold Coast and had nothing to lose.
In a full-throated display of defensive driving, Wood stuck his elbows out to shield Mostert's lead.
Race stewards hit Brown with a warning for exceeding track limits as the Toowoomba terrier pulled out all the stops to try squeeze past.
Next lap, he pushed through on the inside of turn four and, after heavy side-to-side contact, finally muscled past Wood.
But while the two had been jostling for second place, Mostert had managed to extend his lead to almost five seconds, which proved more than enough.
"The last three wins have been all done in different ways," Mostert said.
"First one in Gold Coast was on pure pace; that car was unbelievable. Sunday at Gold Coast was a team strategy. And then today's win was because of my teammate.
"So, overall I've been really lucky to have the support in the garage and from the other car coming into this weekend."
Starting from 15th on the grid, Brown pulled off one of the drives of his career to salvage his finals hopes after another disastrous qualifying performance.
"When I got Broc (Feeney), I said 'it's like Maverick and Goose out there, he's got a wingman'," Brown said.
"I knew Woody would make it hard. He did a fantastic job for the team.
"Glad to get past him and get a couple more points. Up to third in the championship; didn't think that would be the case after our qualifying today."
Despite his irresistible form of late, Mostert said the WAU team had plenty of work ahead of them to tune their Ford Mustangs to match the speed of Brown.
"We don't think we have the speed of this guy (Brown) beside us today," he said.
"Like any race team, you want to regroup overnight and you wanna come out stronger tomorrow. If there's a way to tune the cars tonight we'll have a bit of a crack at that."
Wood held onto third place, ahead of Feeney in fourth.
Grove Racing pair Matt Payne and Kai Allen kept their finals hopes alive, finishing in sixth and seventh respectively.
But it was a disappointing day for Tickford duo Cam Waters and Thomas Randle.
Waters struggled for pace on the super soft tyres, dropping from ninth to 12th, while Randle finished in 17th after a shocking qualifying session saw him start in 22nd on the grid.
Barring a win in Sunday's race, their prospects of progressing to the decider appear shot.
The chance of showers in the forecast does bring a glimmer of hope.
"I think we've a bit of work to do as a team overnight," Randle said.
"It's going to be pretty challenging to win the race, but if it rains and we can just nail everything you never know. There could be incidents on track, all sorts of things could happen tomorrow"
Of the seven drivers still in contention for the championship, only four will progress to the grand-final round in Adelaide in two weeks' time.
RACE 30 RESULTS:
1. Chaz Mostert (Walkinshaw Andretti United)
2. Ryan Wood (WAU)
3. Will Brown (Triple Eight Race Engineering)
4. Broc Feeney (Triple Eight)
5. Brodie Kostecki (Dick Johnson Racing)
CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS:
1. Chaz Mostert (WAU) 4270 points
2. Broc Feeney (Triple Eight) +3pts
3. Will Brown (Triple Eight) +66pts
4. Matt Payne (Grove) +75pts
5. Kai Allen (Grove) +122pts
