Bathurst 1000: Chaz Mostert/Paul Morris win from last for Ford

The messy race featured 10 safety cars, was red-flagged for only the third time in the event's history, and ended up being fought out between two cars that had started at the back.

Mostert made great progress from last on the grid during his opening stint, but his hard work came undone when former full-time V8 Supercars driver Morris took over at the wheel of the Ford Performance Racing Falcon and went into the wall at Griffins Bend.

The corner had caught a number of drivers out during the early phase as the track surface there broke up, prompting a stoppage on lap 61 of 161.

The FPR pair had fallen back to the rear of the field once the race resumed after an hour delay, but thanks to large number of incidents during the final two thirds of the event and subsequent safety car periods, they were in contention with just 10 laps to go.

At this point Mostert trailed Triple Eight pair Whincup - who produced one of the greatest first stints in the race's history, as well as overcoming a lap deficit later on - and Craig Lowndes, plus leader Mark Winterbottom in the sister FPR car.

The Holden duo were forced to conserve fuel as the race drew to a conclusion and Lowndes was subsequently hit with a drive-through penalty for spinning erstwhile leader Winterbottom with seven laps to go just after Whincup passed the Ford.

Whincup pressed on in his Holden, seemingly ignoring pleas from his team to save fuel, but it was too late by the time he acknowledged the request as Mostert was right on his tail with less than half a lap to the finish.

The young Kiwi took the lead at Elbow and cruised to an unlikely victory, ahead of the battered Nissan of James Moffat, whose co-driver Taz Douglas also had a moment at Griffins Bend early on and lost track position limping back to the pits.

Nick Percat could not replicate his 2011 Bathurst success in the Walkinshaw Holden, but both he and Briton Oliver Gavin were in the mix for all eight hours of the race and fully deserved the final spot on the podium.

Amid all the commotion around them, brothers Will and Alex Davison had a fairly anonymous race for Erebus and managed to claim fourth ahead of Whincup, whose Holden spluttered its way to the finish line.

Winterbottom recovered from his altercation with Lowndes to take sixth alongside co-driver Steve Owen. The pair had been on course to repeat last year's success, having timed their last fuel stop to perfection, before things went awry.

Bathurst veterans Lowndes and Steve Richards eventually finished 10th, ahead of the Super Black wildcard entry of Andre Heimgartner and Ant Pedersen, who put in a great performance in the FPR-run Falcon on their debut.

There was heartache for Shane van Gisbergen (pictured), who led the majority of the second half of the race, but stalled his Tekno Holden during the penultimate pitstop and could not get it going again.

The team eventually brought it back to life, but the Kiwi and co-driver Jonathon Webb lost three laps.

Volvo duo Scott McLaughlin and Alexandre Premat had been Tekno's main rivals for most of the race.

Their downfall came on lap 119 when McLaughlin went into the wall at The Cutting and suffered a puncture, taking them out of contention for a possible race victory.

Other incidents in the often bizarre race included a safety car for a kangaroo on the track and Lee Holdsworth's Erebus Mercedes being tipped upside down in a clash with Russell Ingall. Holdsworth was taken for precautionary medical checks.

RESULTS - 161 LAPS:

CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS AFTER 30 OF 37 ROUNDS: