Where Mostert is looking at first shot to 'nail' new Toyota
Chaz Mostert currently 11th in the championship through four rounds
Reigning champion raced from outside the top 10 to podium in Townsville last year
Mostert looking to 2026 Townsville event as chance to again build Finals strength
Chaz Mostert is looking ahead to July’s NTI Townsville 500 to “nail” the set-up of his Toyota Supra in the countdown to the 2026 Finals.
The reigning champion is a lowly 11th in the standings through four rounds, his worst start to a Supercars season since 2016.
It was in Townsville last July when Mostert showed supreme race pace in his car, which was then a Ford Mustang.
Despite qualifying poorly, Mostert climbed through the field with relative ease in the long races to claim against-the-odds podiums.
It set the tone for how Mostert would deliver his maiden championship — benchmark race pace on the street circuits of Gold Coast and Adelaide in the Repco Supercars Finals Series.
Four rounds into life aboard his new Supra, Mostert has struggled to make it work in qualifying, but has shown solid pace in the majority of the races. It came to the fore in the Christchurch finale, only for Mostert to infamously clash with Brodie Kostecki.
"It's unique here, especially for us in mid-year, being a street circuit in the middle of the year, and thinking about the last three races and how they form our Finals Series," Mostert said in Townsville.
"It is a key track to really try and make sure we nail a good set-up here. A lot goes into those last three rounds of the base car we would run.
"There were points we were testing stuff this time last year here [in Townsville], which definitely helped us at the end of the year. It's all roundabouts. We definitely learned some stuff from here to take it at the end of the year.”
Townsville will be preceded by more ’traditional’ circuits in Tasmania and Darwin, and followed by two more in Perth and Ipswich to round out the Repco Sprint Cup.
Mostert, who is still chasing his first Supercars win at Reid Park, continued: "I wish I'd learnt how to qualify [in Townsville last year], it would have made my life a bit easier.
"Obviously, our race car was amazing last year, and it really shows this style of track, how cool it is for racing, the opportunities to pass around here.
"The degradation, all that kind of stuff, and trying to find different grooves at different points over the other drivers. There's a lot of scope here for this track.
"I've still never been able to win here at the Townsville circuit, so if I gave myself half a shot to start a bit forward in that race, maybe I might have been able to stand on the top step.”
Supercars drivers turn to Tasmania on May 22-24, followed by Darwin on June 19-21 and Townsville on July 10-12.
