Chaz Mostert has started the 2021 Supercars Championship with a podium, finishing second in Race 1 at the Mt Panorama 500, with Bryce Fullwood just behind, in fifth.
For Chaz, he converted the speed he has shown all round, lighting up the timing screens in the closing stages, but just running out of laps to put serious heat on Shane van Gisbergen for the win.
For Bryce, it was an amazing way to start his second season in the main-game, moving from 12th to fifth in the race, showing some fantastic speed along the way.
Both cars got away cleanly, despite a little excursion for Bryce avoiding a slower car, and settled into a rhythm.
Bryce was one of the first to stop on lap 5, putting him, momentarily, in clear air until a safety car came two laps later.
That trigged Chaz to stop, and promoted Bryce to second, with less fuel than those around him.
Both put in some seriously solid laps over the next stage of the race to be two of the fastest on track, before Bryce stopped with 18 to go.
Chaz played the long game, re-joining after his stop in second, 6.8 second behind SVG, with 10 laps to go.
He set fastest lap after fastest lap, but couldn’t get quite in reach, finishing under two seconds off the race win, with Bryce not far behind.
Tomorrow we go again, with another qualifying session, top-10 shootout, and 250km race.
Chaz Mostert
“Really positive day for us, and great to get the Mobil 1 Appliances Online Racing No. 25 on the podium in the first race of the season.
“Qualifying wasn’t quiet as strong as we’d been the rest of the weekend, but the guys and girls gave me a really good car in the race today.
“I was pushing hard at the end, but just couldn’t quite close the gap, so congrats to Shane and his guys, and we will have another crack tomorrow.
“Big thank you to everyone who has helped us get here, from the entire team, to all our partners, it was a nice way to start the year, and I’m looking forward to going again in the morning.”
Bryce Fullwood
“Great start to the year in the Mobil 1 Middy’s Racing No. 2 today, I’m stoked to grab a top-five here, it was a pretty awesome race for us.
“The car was really strong in the race, and the guys did a great job reacting to the strategy after the safety car which put us in a strong position late in the race.
“This gives us plenty of confidence heading in to tomorrow, but also, as a team to have both cars inside the five shows the work the entire team has put in this off-season… they are legends.
“Thanks to everyone for their support, we will keep pushing tomorrow.”