Mostert opens up on 'heartbreaking' Gold Coast weekend
Gold Coast "one of the more disappointing weekends" for Chaz Mostert
WAU star ruled out of championship contention after double heartbreak
Mostert 10th, 11th in Gold Coast races after gear sensor, refuelling woes
Chaz Mostert has labelled his frustrating Gold Coast round "one of the more disappointing weekends I’ve had at the races in some time," with dual heartbreaks ending his title hopes.
The Walkinshaw Andretti United star's spirited championship challenge came to a grinding halt at the Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500 after a dose of double disaster on race day.
Mostert was Cam Waters' biggest threat in Saturday's race, but a gear position sensor dropped him from a comfortable second to 10th by the chequered flag, on a day points leader Will Brown crashed in qualifying.
Come Sunday, Mostert was running fourth when WAU mistakenly used teammate Ryan Wood's fuel rig, forcing a third trip to pit lane, a fine for the team, and an eventual finish of 11th.
On a weekend Mostert could have clawed back valuable ground and headed to Adelaide in the title hunt, he instead finished 309 points behind Brown and out of contention.
"That’s the Gold Coast 500 wrapped up, and unfortunately, that was one of the more disappointing weekends I’ve had at the races in some time,” Mostert wrote in a blog.
"We had a car that had a lot of pace across the weekend, though not a lot to show for it which always stings, you really want to make the most of those days when you’re in the window, and we weren’t able to capitalise on that.”
With Mostert second and Brown eighth, the WAU could have slashed the deficit from 225 to 177 points. Instead, Brown extended his margin over Mostert to 243 points.
“Pretty heartbreaking one overall to be honest,” he said of Saturday’s race.
"We were running strongly, the car felt awesome and the pace was epic, but everything was brought to a halt when we had a sensor issue, which basically had me at walking pace when I engaged the pit limiter. Two stops of this, and we just lost so much time.
"I did everything I could to make it up on my stints, which I feel I did, but too much time was lost and we ended up in P10. Tough pill to swallow, we had a car good enough for a surfboard and lost a lot of points towards the championship too."
Mostert said the Saturday drama had the team "pretty fired up" for Sunday, and he duly threw his car around the street to qualify fourth. Holding down fourth in the race, heartbreak again reared its head, Mostert forced into pit lane for a third stop.
It was the latest in a line of mistakes by the WAU camp; Mostert was beaten out of the pits in Bathurst back in February and lost the win to Brown, he was penalised for hitting Matt Payne out of the lead at the Grand Prix, lost a wheel chasing victory in Taupō, lost a Perth win over an unsafe release, and qualified at the back in Darwin.
Mostert also ceded 144 points to Brown in the enduros, with co-driver Lee Holdsworth spinning and WAU lamenting a "diabolical" execution at Sandown, before Mostert tripped over the Matt Chahda wildcard in Bathurst.
The Gold Coast issues were a killer blow, given how fast Mostert was in both races.
"We were pushing on in the race, doing what we could hovering around the top five to make up time sat right in behind Will, biding our time to make an attack later on,” he said.
"We were there, but unfortunately, we had a fuel drama which added a pit stop to our race, which was all she wrote. Soldiered on to make up some positions, and ended up coming home in P11, which wraps up our weekend on the coast.
"The event is always one of my favourites, the vibe is epic and it was great to see such a turnout. We’ll be back next year and have another solid crack at it."
Brown and Broc Feeney will fight for the 2024 Repco Supercars Championship at the VAILO Adelaide 500 from November 14-17. Tickets for the event are on sale now.
