Chaz Mostert praises effort to deliver new Toyota engines
Four upgraded engines installed across Toyota's two teams in Ipswich
Reigning champion ended Friday third fastest
Chaz Mostert has praised Toyota homologation team Walkinshaw TWG Racing and Supercars for a mammoth effort that saw four upgraded engines installed across the marque's two teams in Ipswich.
Though Toyota have stunned with three race wins this season, reliability concerns have reared their head on several occasions, with a known issue surrounding the valvetrain.
A reliability fix has been made in an updated engine, which Mostert tested at both the post-Perth ride day and at The Bend Motorsport Park in the week following the Perth Super 440.
Final sign-off was achieved in the build up to Ipswich, with updated engines installed on Thursday into the factory WTWGR Supras of Mostert and Ryan Wood, as well as Brad Jones Racing duo Andre Heimgartner and Cameron Hill.
The new engine paid dividends for Mostert immediately, the reigning champion ending the day third fastest after leading for a large chunk of Practice 2.
"It's been a massive effort for everyone at Walkinshaw TWG Racing and also Supercars too," said Mostert post-session.
"It's been a massive amount of time this week, even dynoing engines, and trying to get four brand new engines rolled out.
"Unfortunately Macauley [Jones] is the only one that doesn't have one this weekend, but no doubt he'll probably have one for The Bend.
"For me, every time you go to something new you expect some small teething things, but this time the car was right on the tune, it didn't feel like the engine skipped a beat.
"Time will tell if we've made improvements where we needed to. It's really nice to be sitting up here today, but you've got to be sitting up here over the next two days to have a good weekend, so we'll see how we go.
Teammate Wood ended the day in 10th, while Hill was the leading BJR Toyota back in 23rd. Heimgartner was unable to get a green tyre run in the final session, while Jones had an eventful day with electrical gremlins in Practice 1, and an errant screwdriver falling off his car.
Saturday action begins with back-to-back Boost Mobile Qualifying sessions from 10:00am local time.
