Mostert accepts penalty for costly contact with Ojeda

Chaz Mostert concedes the penalty for spinning Jayden Ojeda in Saturday’s second Tasmania race was “justified.”

The reigning champion crawled home 20th in Race 15, just hours after winning Race 14 from pole.

Starting down the order for Race 15, Mostert clattered into Ojeda’s PremiAir Racing Chevrolet at Turn 6, sending the #31 Camaro off the road.

Mostert was hit with a 15-second penalty, adding to his on-track penalties from Melbourne and Christchurch.

On this occasion, Mostert accepted total blame.

“Started further back than we would have liked in the second race,” the two-time Bathurst 1000 winner wrote on social media.

“Battling away and had a crack at T6 on Juice and just locked up and accidentally put him through the blender.

“Justified penalty so finished P20, go again tomorrow.”

The stewards report states Mostert was hit with a Careless Driving charge, explaining: "The vision showed Car 1 attempted to overtake Car 31 at the entry to Turn 6. Car 31 left racing room on the inside but Car 1 locked a brake and his turn-in was compromised and contact resulted causing Car 31 to spin and lose multiple positions. The Stewards consider this driving conduct amounts to a breach of the Rules and impose a penalty consistent with previous breaches of a similar nature."

Impressively, rookie Ojeda rebounded to finish 15th, and was reclassified 14th.

“We had a bit of contact with Chaz, which sent us into the dirt and to the back of the pack,” Ojeda said.

“The positive was that the car's pace was really strong all day. Massive credit to the boys and girls at PremiAir Racing.

“The car was super fast, and we fought our way back to P14 and set the fastest lap of the race as well.”

The final day of the Tyrepower Tasmania Super 440 begins with Boost Mobile Qualifying for Race 16 on Sunday morning at 11:35am AEST.