Mostert blown away by Richards, Sheene honours

Chaz Mostert was "blown away" to be recognised at the 2024 Supercars Gala Awards, with the Ford star sweeping the major accolades on Monday night.

The Walkinshaw Andretti United driver won the Barry Sheene Medal for a second time, was named Drivers' Driver for the first time, and took out the inaugural Jim Richards Award.

Mostert won three races and claimed 14 podiums en route to third in the 2024 Repco Supercars Championship, matching his third-place finishes from 2021 and 2022.

Speaking on the night, Mostert hailed his competitors, and paid tribute to the legacy of seven-time Bathurst winner Richards.

"First of all, to be the first recipient of this award is something pretty amazing. Gentleman Jim is someone that was probably a little bit out of my generation of looking up to, but saying that, everyone knew what he was capable on the track and off the track," the 32-year-old said.

"Basically saying the pack of nice guys, globally, across all of Australia on live TV, it pretty much speaks massively of the bloke.

"I just want to thank all the drivers in our sport because I've been coming to these Gala Awards for over 10 years now, and been racing hard every year. Every driver that comes that I've looked up to, a couple of guys are obviously leaving us this year, full-time drivers, to young drivers coming in, in the next generation.

"This sport is something very, very special, and for me, my dream was always to be a Supercar driver, and I know a lot of guys in this room was to be a Supercar driver, and I've been lucky enough to achieve that."

Mostert topped the Richards Award count with 102 votes, ahead of champion Will Brown (95) and Broc Feeney (93).

"Every year the competition is so, so hard. It's so hard between all the teams as well. Every year, each team steps up more and more and more trying to win the teams' championship, win the drivers' championship. And for me, the competition is something so fantastic," the two-time Bathurst winner said.

"On the flip side, there's a lot of people behind the scenes that make Supercars so great. From volunteers that give up their free time to come to be part of the event, to make sure we have flaggies, to people that, either in the paddock across the weekends, we can't do what we do without them.

"So the mechanics, the engineers, everyone inside our teams, it's something pretty fantastic. And then to the partners, our families, behind all the scenes from all those people, it's something pretty amazing.

"And then saying that your voice Crompo is something pretty fantastic behind the scenes, not so much Mark Skaife, but Crompo, you really make it. And Jess as well. So thank you so much to everyone involved.

"I'm just blown away. So, thanks so much. It's really good. It's just unbelievable."

Mostert challenged for victory in Adelaide on Sunday, missing out after a controversial incident with Feeney.

Despite the heartbreak, Mostert was gracious in defeat after the race, something he echoed in his speech.

"I think this year's been really fantastic. We've seen a lot of drivers in the mix, a lot of teams in the mix as well. And that's an awesome future for the whole sport," he said.

"Next couple of years is going to be really interesting in the Gen3 era, there's going to be another manufacturer in a couple of years as well, so that's going to be really cool.

"But like I said, I just really love the competitiveness of the sport. All the drivers, I know you guys will message me later in our drivers group and call me whatever you want to call me, and that's all great.

"I just love racing cars and that showed on Sunday as well, didn't get the result that we wanted for our team to win, but I love racing door to door, it goes your way some days, some days it doesn't.

"Just thank you so much. Just honestly, I don't deserve to get up here as many times. It's all credit to you guys. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it."