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Record-breaking Mostert credits WAU for form reversal

04 Dec 2021
A month ago in Sydney, Chaz Mostert couldn’t buy a front row
3 mins by James Pavey
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A month ago in Sydney, Chaz Mostert couldn’t buy a front row, let alone reach it.

On Saturday, the 2014 Great Race winner clocked the quickest lap in a Supercar around Mount Panorama.

Aboard his #25 Mobil 1 Appliances Online Commodore, Mostert left his rivals in his wake in Saturday’s ARMOR ALL Top Ten Shootout.

  • Mostert scores Bathurst pole with all-time lap record

  • Click here for Top Ten Shootout results

  • Starting grid: 2021 Repco Bathurst 1000

The 29-year-old’s 2:03.373s proved quicker than the previous practice/qualifying record set by Scott McLaughlin in 2019.

Mostert and Lee Holdsworth topped four of six practice sessions between them, and Mostert qualified third on Friday.

On Saturday, he went even quicker - something that Walkinshaw Andretti United struggled to do across the Sydney double-header.

Mostert’s average starting position across the 11 Sydney races was 9.9; the only time he qualified on the front row, he was excluded - and raced from 26th to third.

In the wake of his rapid lap in Bathurst, Mostert paid tribute to his team for engineering what has proven to be an historic car.

“For me, the lap time doesn’t really matter; it’s how you feel in a race car at a certain point,” Mostert said.

“It’s one of the funnest Supercars that I’ve ever driven.

“It’s a credit to the whole team; they’ve really come a long way from SMP. This track obviously suits the car more.

“From Practice 1, this car has built confidence in both of us. Light tanks, a good set of tyres on and the right settings, that was just a lot of fun.

“At the right end of the shootout to do it as well, the track got better and better.

“You see it every year; it gets faster and faster, so quick. We were in the prime opportunity to do a good lap. So fun."

Seven drivers dropped in laps before Mostert rolled out of pit lane, and former teammate Cameron Waters had laid down a serious marker.

Waters, the 2020 pole-sitter, clocked a 2:03.686s to put Mostert, Anton De Pasquale and provisional pole man Will Brown on notice.

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Instead, it was Mostert who left all in his wake.

“Cam laid down a heater; any time you’re in the 2:03s is fast around here,” Mostert continued.

“Getting to that mid-mark is very fast. I tried to block it all out and feel the car.

“Feel that grip you’ve got and try to drive it over the edge, and try and get the most speed out of it.

“I saw the dash, compared to the lap that was in it, that I was going faster.

“You’re not doing maths out there; you’re just trying to go faster and faster without putting a wheel in the dirt.”

Mostert is credited with the 2019 pole after McLaughlin, who went on to win the race, had his time wiped from the record books.

While admitting saying he has a ’second’ Great Race pole is strange, Mostert - who won races in Tasmania and Darwin this year - was keen to put his car to work across 161 laps.

“I thought in practice that our race car was better than out qualy car,” he said.

“Obviously we made the qualy car a lot better.

“We’re looking forward to that warm up tomorrow; we’ve been pretty relaxed this week.

“I feel like we’ve prepared ourselves as best we can as see what we can do."

The 161-lap Repco Bathurst 1000 will commence at 12:15pm AEDT on Sunday.

Supercars will return to the track on Sunday for the Warm Up at 9:10am AEDT. Click here to view the track schedule.

Every session of the event will be broadcast live on Foxtel (Fox Sports 503) and streamed on Kayo.

The Seven Network will provide live free to air coverage of the event. Tickets for the event are on sale now.

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