Championship chase out of mind for Mostert

Chaz Mostert says there’s ‘no point’ thinking about recent hits to his championship points tally unless Prodrive finds the speed to challenge for wins on a consist basis.

After an impressive start to the season, Mostert has plummeted from 31 to 304 points adrift of Virgin Australia Supercars Championship leader Fabian Coulthard in just two events.

A disastrous Winton that included a gearbox failure while running second in the Saturday race left the 25-year-old hoping to regain lost ground at Hidden Valley.

A promising pre-event test at Winton and previous strong form at Hidden Valley gave little hint to how tough the trip to the Northern Territory would prove for Prodrive.

Mostert finished 17th in Sunday’s race – 48 seconds behind the winner – trailing team-mates Cameron Waters (ninth), Jason Bright (13th) and Mark Winterbottom (14th).

While Saturday had proven more respectable as he led the Prodrive cars with a fifth place finish, Mostert had still been 0.3s away from the pace in qualifying.

The 2014 Bathurst winner was at a loss to explain why his previous speed had not transferred to the Top End but says planned development parts can’t come quickly enough.

“Our normal set-up tools didn’t quite work, which is obviously a big bummer for us,” he told Supercars.com.

“The other cars that had been strong at other rounds were still strong, so we’re not completely sure what happened.

“There are some things we need to go back over to make sure the car is 100 percent alright, but we just didn’t have the pace.

“The way our car works, the temperature up here really didn’t help it. We weren’t ever close enough on the straight to have a crack at anyone.

“It wasn’t the only thing we struggled with though. There is some stuff in the pipeline but we need it now rather than later. We’re just hanging out for those things.”

The early part of the season had seen Mostert emerge as the only man seemingly capable of taking it to the Shell V-Power and Red Bull drivers in the championship race.

If Mostert’s fortunes don’t turn quickly, the season appears destined to become a four-way fight waged exclusively between the two heavyweight teams.

“I don’t want to think about the championship right now,” Mostert said of his position.

“Winton hurt enough with the pinion gear, but if we don’t have car speed there’s no point even thinking about it.

“We need to be strong week in, week out, be around that top five consistently and on a good day be a chance for wins. Until we’re there I don’t want to think about it.”