Mostert's frank admission over Tasmania disaster

Chaz Mostert admits his Tasmania weekend was a "really, really tough one,” saying his Sunday performance was "probably one of of my worst.”

After winning a race and claiming a podium in Taupo, Mostert collapsed in a heap in Tasmania, finishing 14th, 19th and 18th in the three races.

The Walkinshaw Andretti United driver entered the weekend as a favourite following his superb Super Soft pace in New Zealand, but wasn’t a factor at any stage.

In one weekend, Mostert fell from 86 to 250 points from the championship lead, and is now 105 points above the Finals cut-line.

Mostert failed to score a race top 10 finish at a multi-race round for the first time since Perth 2022.

"Difficult start for us and Saturday was one of the toughest ones I’ve had in a while,” he wrote in his post-round wrap.

“We started with the two part qualis up first and the best we could do was P19 and P12, couple small things with the car and some traffic just made it difficult.

"For the first race on Saturday, I was stuck in the battle back at the back but just struggled to get forward with the guys infront making their cars pretty wide. I took three tyres in my stop but the best I could do was P15.

"In the second race, I was in the mid-pack on the start but I was battling with Will and then got hit with a five second penalty, I served that in my stop which I took early, but the cars behind me had 20 lap fresher tyres and I couldn’t keep up — I dropped down to P18 and that was all she wrote.”

Mostert was penalised over an early race incident that saw Will Davison sent into a spin at the hairpin.

He was then nerfed off the road by Richie Stanaway while a lap down, and sought clarity from Driving Standards Advisor Craig Baird over both incidents after the race.

The two-time Bathurst winner is now desperate to go again in Perth, where he won his first race in a WAU Ford last year.

"Sunday’s race went from bad to worse, qualified on the back row and had a tough race, got a penalty and got sent off the track — was probably one of of my worst,” he continued.

"Super tough weekend for the #25, not for a lack of trying by the guys and girls at WAU — they did the best they could and tried so many different things to try and get the car and myself to get some competitiveness out of us, but this weekend was just a really, really tough one.

"Looking forward to now actually having the car back at the workshop for a couple of weeks and prep for the next one at Perth, which was happy hunting ground for us last year.

"Thanks to all our sponsors and to all our fans because we really lean on you on all that support when we don't have the result we want, and everyone's been really awesome this weekend."