Bathurst, Mount Panorama. It’s a circuit that is fabled with the tales of great glory and tragic hardships. Over its incredible tenure, many highs and many lows have been witnessed on the Australian Touring Car scene.
2015’s Bathurst 1000 saw one of the wildest incidents seen on the Mountain, when championship challenger Chaz Mostert during qualifying managed to clip the wall at Turn 16, before pinballing spectacularly down to Forrest’s Elbow.
The stricken Ford Falcon FG X had been written off, but it paled in comparison to the damage that the then 22-year-old had sustained.
Suffering a clean break to his leg and a broken wrist, the season that saw young Mostert emerge as a championship threat to his Ford teammate Mark Winterbottom, was now over and his streak of six podiums, including three wins – has been eradicated.
Having recovered from his horror injuries in good stead, Mostert returned to Supercars in 2016 where he’d been shifted across to the Rod Nash Racing stable, within the Prodrive organisation.
There was onus on the Prodrive squad that season to follow up on their breakout 2015 campaign, where Winterbottom did avail as the series champion in the absence of Mostert. It was not to be however, with the Red Bull Holden team taking the honours quite convincingly – leaving the Ford squad squandering in their midst.
Mostert himself had ended his return season down seventh in the standings, 128 points adrift of the sixth placed Winterbottom. En route, he had collected five podiums and five pole positions – with the win ostensibly elusive for the balance of that year.
Having now had a full season to ease back into the series and regain some of his lost confidence through the injury, Mostert has emerged as the leading Prodrive force following the curtain raising Clipsal 500 and the non-championship Australian Grand Prix rounds.
Adelaide saw the now 24-year-old remind everyone why indeed he is fast, having qualified third and fourth for the two races in a car that currently looks to be the third quickest, behind the Red Bull Holdens and DJR Team Penske.
Race 2 yielded a podium finish, which places Mostert fourth in the standings heading to Tasmania.
The Australian Grand Prix round, as previously discussed is a great canvas for picturing the championship ahead and Mostert was once again in the thick of the action with his rivals at Red Bull and DJR Team Penske.
Race 4 saw the youngster take his first victory in the category since Sydney Motorsport Park back in 2015 and while it was not for points, Mostert elucidated that it was quite crucial.
“We’ve found something that’s working,” Mostert spoke in regards to his car and being reunited with his 2015 engineer Adam De Borre, who returned to the Prodrive fold after a season with DJR Team Penske.
“This year there seems to be a lot of players for the championship. Obviously the Penske guys and Triple Eight (Red Bull).”
“It’s about trying to be consistent week in and week out.”
And with that consistency, Mostert can be a force to be reckoned with in the 2017 title battle. Many have underlined how it’ll be an exclusive bout between the two Red Bull drivers and the DJR Ford duo – but it’s wise not to rule Ford’s dark horse out just yet.
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