Mostert moves up the order
The focus was on Prodrive's David Reynolds after breaking his race-winning drought on Sunday at Darwin - but home behind him in second, Chaz Mostert was also firing in the Top End.
The young gun has had an interesting start to the season, with costly errors when in good positions at the Clipsal 500 and Winton Sunday races - the latter he was leading before a driver error saw his Pepsi Max Falcon lodged in the tyres.
But Mostert is overcoming the early setbacks, climbing up the leaderboard and now sits fourth, only 174 points away from leading teammate Mark Winterbottom and 19 points away from third placed Fabian Coulthard.
Mostert entered the SKYCITY Triple Crown Darwin eighth but sprung up the order on Sunday morning after some of his front-running competitors were handed post-race points penalties after the incident packed Saturday races.
Havingearned second in Sunday's tricky 200km race he now finds himself in the thick of the Championship battle.
"Darwin was fantastic, probably my best round all year," Mostert told v8supercars.com.au.
"It does kind of feel [like I went] under the radar there a bit. Craig got the 100th win - that was awesome and got a lot of the limelight - and then Dave Reynolds to get his win after a couple of years too was pretty special.
"But I like it that way, I like going under the radar - you just keep chipping away and see how we end up at the next event."
Mostert said he has a lot more to think about this year, which he counts as his second real crack at the Championship, after joining Dick Johnson Racing after season had begun in 2013.
Just four events after his debut, the young gun won a race for DJR and a few months laterwas announced as Mark Winterbottom's Pepsi Max teammate for '14 as Will Davison left the Ford squad.
"The first year I came in ... there was no pressure whatsoever to perform for a Championship, it was just about getting single race and round results," he said.
"But it's my second year in now - as a full Championship, there's a lot more to think about. That was the first year, and last year, I really just made a mess of things there, just aimed for some good results at the end of the year."
Mostert finished seventh in the title fight in 2014, but earned a Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 win with Paul Morris, driving from last to first in incredible fashion.
"This year a couple of little errors again have put us on the back foot a little bit, but people are forgetting ... we've only done five rounds of 15...
"There have been a lot more highs than lows [this year] and they're the things you have to hold on to."
The FG X Falcon has performed well since debuting at the Sydney.com SuperTest, where Mostert won the SuperShootout, the quickest car in one lap in the year's first hit-out.
Since then he has been the form qualifier, earning his first career pole position in Perth and backing it up with five to his name now - the most of any driver this season.
"It has a lot to do with the car ... our car is super competitive this year, it's a real credit to the guys at Prodrive. Obviously without the good car you wouldn't be up the pointy end no matter who you are as a driver," Mostert said.
"But saying that it's good to go to a track where you've had a shocker the year before and you haven't really had any good results and you get a couple of good results.
"It definitely gives you a bit more momentum heading on through the year, but it kind of ticks a few boxes too that you've always wanted to tick as well."
