Mostert apologetic over costly Golding clash

A remorseful Chaz Mostert has apologised for his costly clash with James Golding that attracted the Walkinshaw Andretti United driver a penalty.

The MSS Security Melbourne SuperSprint was one to forget for Mostert, who recorded finishes of 10th, 10th and 22nd en route to 12th overall for the weekend.

Mostert left Sydney just 65 points from the championship lead, but dropped to third behind Broc Feeney after ceding 129 points to new leader Will Brown in Melbourne. Not only is Mostert 134 points behind Brown, he's 89 points above the Finals cutline, having left Sydney 113 above.

The Mobil 1 Optus Ford driver lost 33 points over his penalty for hitting Golding in Race 6, having initially been classified seventh. Mostert clattered into Golding’s PremiAir Chevrolet at Turn 11 on the first lap, sending the Camaro into the gravel trap and out of contention.

Mostert quickly moved to apologise to Golding and PremiAir after the race, before he was ultimately penalised. It's the second year running that Mostert apologised to a rival in Melbourne, after a clash with Matt Payne 12 months ago.

"Rough weekend for us,” Mostert wrote in a post-event column.

"We started off on Thursday with qualifying for the first two races, both cars ultimately lacking qualifying pace starting mid pack in the field for Race 4 and 5.

“Thursday's race was just absolute chaos. Started in the mid-pack, I was up in the 10 but was run wide and dropped down to P15 but I will say, we did have good car pace and managed to cross the line P10 in the end.

"Friday’s race was chaos again but minimal racing laps with two Safety Car periods and then going time certain, the short 19-lap race didn’t last too long and I finished P10 again.

"On Saturday, the back to back qualifying was difficult again, first session we were stuck and just couldn’t get into the 10, in the second session I went for a flyer but got held up by Will Brown and finished P23.

"In the race, I had a lock up on Turn 12 and made contact with Golding on lap 1, I crossed the finish line in P7 but was dropped to P22 with a 30-second post-race penalty.

It was no better over one lap, with Mostert qualifying 13th, 15th, 11th and 24th — delivering an average start of 15.75 — with the latter result caused by an impeding incident with Brown.

Crucially, Mostert dodged a bullet on Sunday, with Race 7 abandoned due to heavy rain as he prepared to start from 24th and last.

"Sunday was a non event, two laps under Safety car and that was it — positive was we were last row starters and since no points were awarded, it doesn’t hurt our standings in the end,” the two-time Bathurst winner added.

"The AusGP crowd has been awesome, the fans really turned up and it’s great to have such entertaining races for the fans.

"The race pace is there, we are just starting too far back to show the rewards for it — the focus for us is going to be working on our qualifying pace. Hopefully it’s only up from here, we’ll regroup and have a go at Taupō."

The 2025 Repco Supercars Championship will resume in New Zealand at the ITM Taupō Super 440 on April 11-13. Tickets for the event are on sale now.