Mostert's touching dedication to late mentor

Chaz Mostert has dedicated his Sandown podium to late friend and respected Formula Ford identity Paul Mulhearn Sr.

The Walkinshaw Andretti United driver finished second in Sunday’s first race at the Penrite Oil Sandown SuperSprint.

Mostert qualified third for Race 25, which was won by Shane van Gisbergen.

Formula Ford stalwart Mulhearn Sr. passed away on Sunday.

Mostert, the 2010 Formula Ford champion, dedicated his podium to his long-term supporter and friend.

"I just want to say hi to the whole Mulhearn family, thinking of you guys," Mostert said.

"We lost one of my friends Paul Sr., we actually won the Formula Ford Championship here at Sandown together.

"This one's for you Paul Snr, hope you’re having a VB up there and sitting at your favourite McDonald's having a nice Big Mac."

Mostert completed three campaigns in Formula Ford with Synergy Motorsport.

He won the 2010 Australian Formula Ford Championship with the squad.

Mostert’s Sandown podium was welcome relief for WAU, which discovered an issue in the engine after qualifying.

WAU raced to change the engine in the #25 Mobil 1 Commodore, and had just 85 minutes to complete the extensive work.

"It’s been a big 24 hours for the team," Mostert said.

"[They worked] extremely hard last night to turn this car into a faster car today.

"To qualify with a third and fifth we are pretty happy with that and then found that we needed to change engine.

"Big credit to our team, they worked extremely hard all the way up to the last minute there to get this car out.

"So just super pumped to reward them with the podium because yeah, I love racing around here.

"The team’s efforts been second to none, so I'm really proud of the whole team to get this thing back out there."

The Penrite Oil Sandown SuperSprint will conclude with Race 26 at 4:20pm local time.