Our fourth race weekend in four weeks is a wrap, as two races around Reid Park rounded out the Townsville SuperSprint 2.0.
Sunday saw Chaz Mostert record his ninth top-five finish of the year, which is fantastic consistency as proven by him sitting third in the 2020 championship, while Bryce Fulwood’s qualifying speed is extremely promising.
We now have one weekend off, before a double header at The Bend in South Australia!
Qualifying Race 23
Bryce 8th, Chaz 13th
Qualifying Race 24
Chaz 3rd, Bryce 11th
Race 23
Chaz 10th, Bryce 12th
Bryce got away to a blinder, but the only way to go forward was around the outside. After ending up on one wheel in mid-air, he dropped back to 11th, but the car was good to continue.
The strategies were split in this one, Chaz went early, which triggered a flurry in pit-lane, while Bryce went long.
Unfortunately, a sticking wheel nut put Bryce further down the order than planned, but he did a great job to move from 18th to 12th in the final stint, whereas Chaz held on for dear life in the closing laps on older tyres than those around him.
Race 24
Chaz 4th, Bryce 18th
Oh-so-close to another podium for Chaz, who was probably a lap-short of collecting another trophy, while Bryce was hurt by a late-safety car after stopping early.
After starting on the second-row, Chaz settled into fourth early, before getting in front of Nick Percat for third before the first round of stops. Car 25 went longer than most around him, looking for the tyre advantage at the end.
He re-joined sixth, before a safety-car with 16 to go spiced the race up. Upon the restart, he was able to move by Percat and Todd Hazelwood, but Shane van Gisbergen, who was the latest car to stop, got Chaz.
Mostert pushed Scott McLaughlin all the way to the line for the final step on the podium, but fell just short.
For Bryce, he went the opposite strategy, stopping early for track position. Unfortunately, that meant when the field got bunched up at the end under safety car, he didn’t have the tyre-life to fight with.
Chaz Mostert
“It was a gruelling weekend on the whole, and it’s been a big month, but we banked a solid haul of points again today. We got qualifying right in the last session there, and just missed the podium, so that was a shame but there were still a lot of positives to take from it.”
“Overall I’m happy with the progress we are making, I know I sound like a broken record, but it’s how we are looking at things right now. There’s a couple of cars in a league of their own at the moment, but it’s our job to catch them.
“I’m looking forward to the challenge of improving the car for the rest of the year, and fire us into next year. Can’t wait for The Bend, bring it on.”
Bryce Fullwood
“It was a bit of a disappointing finish to the weekend, which was a shame because the qualifying package was strong, but we just didn’t quite get the results we were after today.
“We made the car a lot better in the first race today, the race pace was good, it was a shame to have that little issue in the lane that stopped us moving up the order and into the 10.
“It’s been a massive month for the crew here, as well as their families back home, so I can’t thank them all enough. Looking forward to getting back into it at The Bend.”