No panic over Mostert fuel shortage

Tickford Racing boss Tim Edwards insists there was no concern that Chaz Mostert would run out of fuel on the final lap of the OTR SuperSprint opener.

Second-placed Mostert finished seven seconds behind winner Scott McLaughlin, having dropped 5.6s to the leader on the final lap.

Mostert had stalked his rival throughout a long second-stint; the two Mustangs running a hot pace that created a big gap to third-placed Anton De Pasquale.

Asked post-race what happened on the final lap, Mostert was his usual cheeky self.

“I just was tired from trying to keep up with him,” he joked. “He’s doing qualifier after qualifier and I just gave up by that point!"

Edwards meanwhile dismissed any suggestion that the second-place had been in jeopardy, or that the pace had caused higher consumption than anticipated.

“All of our cars got the low-fuel alarm on the last lap, so Adam [De Borre, engineer] just said 'cruise home, you've got 24 seconds to the car behind',” said Edwards.

“You always want to run it into the pot, and on these Saturday races you're always tight on fuel. But we were comfortable, there was no issue.

“As soon as it goes into the pot, then you know you've got X-amount of kays left. You always expect to run close.

“That's why you saw some cars still putting fuel in, because it's one of those borderline races. Can you do it without fuelling or not?

“You saw on the drive to the grid, if you listen on the radio you hear everyone giving fuel targets because you've got to drive from the garage with a thimble of fuel so you've got enough for the race.

“He would have been fine. He did another lap after the chequered flag.”

Asked if he was pleased Mostert was able to push McLaughlin so hard during the 24-laps, Edwards added: “To be honest I'm disappointed.

“We qualified on pole and I wanted to win the race. So to finish second feels like a bitter pill, really.

“I think everyone is hopeful that if we'd got a better start, we know that if you can just get in front of Scott you've got half a chance of beating him.

“But when he qualifies on pole and he's got clear track in front of him, he can drive the way he wants to drive and he wins the race.

“Had Chaz got him off the line, we might have seen a different result today.

“We tried. Adam had a crack and brought him in, tried to do the undercut and it didn't quite work. But it's still a fantastic result.”

Tickford had an otherwise mixed day, with Cameron Waters ninth, Lee Holdsworth 13th, Thomas Randle 17th and Will Davison failing to finish.

The latter trio were all turned around on a wild opening lap, with Davison caught up in an incident for which Rick Kelly received a drive-through penalty.