Mostert, Holdsworth hail 'faultless' WAU after comeback
Mostert/Holdsworth fourth after starting ninth
#25 Ford dropped out of the top 10 during opening stints
Mostert dyed hair pink to raise funds for McGrath Foundation
Chaz Mostert and Lee Holdsworth have both praised a “faultless” Walkinshaw Andretti United after racing to fourth in the Repco Bathurst 1000, which got off to a poor start for the 2021 winners.
The #25 Mobil 1 Optus Ford started ninth at the hands of Holdsworth, who dropped out of the top 10 in the early stints as he battled with poor tyre life.
As the race wore on, the track came to the #25 Mustang, with the team executing a seamless strategy to get the car towards the pointy end.
Mostert made his final stop on lap 140 and rejoined behind David Reynolds, and passed the #26 Penrite Ford two laps later.
Two-time Bathurst winner Mostert had 14 seconds to find on Anton De Pasquale, and crossed the line just 9.7s behind the #11 Shell V-Power Mustang. Teammates Nick Percat and Fabian Coulthard, meanwhile, moved the #2 Mobil 1 NTI Ford from 23rd to 14th.
Mostert’s efforts came on a weekend he dyed his hair pink to raise funds for the McGrath Foundation, with the Ford star nearly at his $20,000 goal at the time of publication. Click here to donate.
“If you said to us this morning if we'd bag a top five, honestly, I would’ve stole it,” Mostert said.
“Super pumped with the team, faultless in the lane, the car prep, everything, they gave us their all this weekend.
“They’ve gone above and beyond in the last couple of years here when we were lucky enough to win [in 2021] and runner-up last year.
“Big credit to the guys and girls at WAU, I didn’t expect to get fourth today. Lee drove the wheels off it, the guys with strategy were on it.
“It’s so good to reward the team with a fourth place, obviously we’d love a trophy from it.”
Critically, the result helped Mostert back into fifth in the drivers’ standings, and the 31-year-old is now 157 points from third with 600 points remaining at the Gold Coast and Adelaide events.
It was a far better outcome for the #25 after a Sandown 500 ruined by early damage and a late penalty for Mostert.
“Our car hadn’t been fantastic in the lead-up to this race,” Holdsworth said.
“We didn't have very good tyre life, and that first stint, we struggled a bit. As the race went on, the car came to us as the track grip went down.
“We ended up with not a bad car for the second half of the race, Chaz does what he does and drives the wheels off it and got us a great result.
“The team was faultless. I’m really proud of everyone at WAU, it’s always good fun teaming up with Chaz and these guys.”
