Season in Review: Chaz Mostert

It’s been an impressive debut for young gun Chaz Mostert who received the call up from the Dunlop Series to race a new generation V8 Supercar from the Perth event. He didn’t waste any time, bagging a race win two months later at Queensland Raceway in July.

He leaves his post at Dick Johnson Racing to move to a factory seat at Ford Performance Racing in 2014.

Mostert talks about his debut year – which he rates a 10 out of 10 – with v8supercars.com.au.

V8supercars.com.au: What was your best race?

Mostert: “Probably Queensland Raceway to be honest. I think that was pretty special and it was a pretty emotional time for DJR and myself as a driver. It was just unbelievable, so unexpected and everything just ran so smoothly in the race. The car was awesome, the engineers did such a good job, I didn’t put a foot loose either, so just really happy to get to the end and stand on the top step next to Mark Winterbottom, one of my idols, and obviously Will Davison, also part of the FPR gang.

“It was the three of us on the podium and a really special moment.”

Most disappointing race?

“Bathurst. After having the crash in practice we just never quite – obviously the car was still pretty shaken up after that. We had to start from pit lane, it was just a bit rough – it’s a long day when you go a few laps down so it just wasn’t quite the best race of the year. Hopefully it can be better next year.”

The best battle?

“Every time I come up against Shane van Gisbergen is a pretty good battle!”

Best off-track memory/achievement?

“Every round was pretty special for me off track, just getting to see how many supporters V8 Supercars have and some of the fans out there.

“Every time I am out there for the drivers’ parade going around and seeing the officials clap and the fans clap, it makes you feel pretty special. It’s probably my favourite part of the weekend – when I’m not racing around the track, going around the track on the back of someone else’s car and seeing all the fans out there who are so dedicated to watching us race.”

Goal coming into the season?

“I just wanted to get quite a few top 10 finishes this year, just show that the DJR car had some speed in it, and I just kept aiming for that. It’s such a tough field, some people expect some people to come in and dominate straight away or something like that, but it’s just so competitive.

“Every week is different, if you don’t quite get on top of the setup or you don’t quite get on top of the track with your driving style it could be the difference between being in the top 10 or 20 so you’ve got to be right on top of it.

“This year was really good – I didn’t expect to be going quite as well as I did and get to 17th in the Championship but at the start the first goal was to try and get in the top 20 and to do that quite early before the end of the year was fantastic. That was my goal.” 

Best achievement by the team?

“Definitely Bathurst. To have that car, how bad it was after the hit in practice, to get that back out on track is an unbelievable thing. I didn’t expect it to actually get out there but (the guys stayed) so late to get that car ready. When we put it on the track there was just a minor thing wrong, which was understandable, given how much was actually bent and stuff like that. That was just an amazing effort by the team.

“But … they did such a good job prepping the car because we ask so much of these cars and they just seem to fix them no matter what, so it’s just fantastic.”

Most challenging part of running the new generation cars?

“I guess not knowing a whole big database about the car. Not knowing what its reliability is like, not knowing exactly what to change in the car to try and go faster in this and that area, whereas with the old cars you used to know a lot. I guess the learning curve of the new car set-up wise and reliability wise is the biggest challenge of the new cars.”

How would you rate your season out of 10?

“Personally, me a 10 because at the start of the year I never expected to be in main game this year. To make the step up (from) DVS in round four and just, not so much rating myself, more the team’s effort – altogether I think it was definitely a 10 this year.”

Best performance by another driver?

“Probably Mark Winterbottom at Bathurst, to have that win after racing so many years there and being so close. Whincup put him under a lot of pressure for the last 30-odd laps and he did not crack at all. It is pretty spectacular to have that mental strength for that long and to achieve that is, I reckon, pretty cool.

“But saying that, there were a lot of good drives in the races, but that one definitely stands out for me in the year.”

Most valuable co-driver?

“Dale Wood, for me personally, this year was really good. He did everything you could ask. He gave it straight and back in a competitive position, all that kind of stuff, never put a step wrong at all.”

Best change to the series for 2014?

“I think the whole series is looking pretty good, but probably for me personally the best is bringing some fuel races back into it again. It’s hard racing out there – some cars are so identical it’s actually hard to race out there and the only time you can get track position on someone else is a bit of strategy. So pretty exciting to have some fuel races back next year.

“But also we’ll see how the twilight race goes at Clipsal, that will be pretty cool being in prime time TV so more people can see us out there. I think it’s going to be a pretty good year.”

Mostert in 2013