Mostert's karting flashbacks in Sydney battle

Chaz Mostert was drawn to recent karting battles with Supercars rivals Will Brown and Cam Waters amid his thrilling stoush with the duo in Sydney.

Mostert and Brown completed the Race 18 podium at the Beaurepaires Sydney SuperNight behind winner Brodie Kostecki.

Mostert, Brown, Waters and Shane van Gisbergen put on a thrilling show late in the 51-lap night race for the minor placings.

The battle exploded on lap 49 when Brown pressured Waters — who was carrying a five-second penalty — at Turn 2.

Brown muscled down the inside, with Waters returning serve through Turn 3. It allowed Mostert to pull off a stunning two-for-one pass through Turn 4.

Behind him, Brown and van Gisbergen came together on the last lap, with the latter penalised and the incident itself seeing Erebus Motorsport CEO Barry Ryan fined over post-race comments.

For Walkinshaw Andretti United star Mostert, the battle returned him to recent hire kart fun with Brown and Waters.

"I felt pretty racy with a few guys, there were some quick guys out there as well,” the #25 Mobil 1 Optus Ford driver said post-race.

"I was around that fifth or sixth on pace, these guys [Erebus] were speedy.

"You can never count out an SMP night race, Safety Car late, anything like that — the race fell our way.

"The last couple of weeks, I’ve had some hire kart races with Will Brown and Cam Waters. It was like a flashback for me, those last couple of laps.

“I’m glad those two got a bit of red mist and made a nice alley for the big rig down the inside.”

When asked about the four-way battle,” Mostert replied: "If I was one the one on the outside, I would’ve absolutely hated it.

"But I was the guy on the inside, and absolutely loved it.”

Mostert admitted the late-race Safety Car helped his cause, but reiterated that he had to work even harder after qualifying ninth.

The two-time Bathurst winner also put on a bold move on Matt Stone Racing's Jack Le Brocq on the restart, which played a key role in his podium hopes.

The #25 Mustang chewed through its tyre bank through knockout qualifying, with Mostert forced to battle through Q3.

"The Safety Car came at the right time, we were able to use our fuel in hand,” he said.

"I had to race pretty hard, we made it hard for ourselves with where we qualified — but at the moment, qualifying in the top 10 is good for us.

"Spent all our tyres in Q1 and Q2 and trying to maximise the car, then didn’t have anything left in Q3.”

Mostert is 248 points down from the series lead heading into Sunday, with qualifying to start in Sydney at 12:35pm local time/AEST.