Round 3 of 2023 has come to an end, with three 100km sprint races at the Perth SuperSprint. Chaz Mostert capped off the weekend with two top-five finishes, whilst Nick Percat struggled with car issues in the morning.
The day started early with two back-to-back qualifying sessions for Race 8 and 9. The team worked hard overnight to improve the qualifying pace with Chaz in the Mobil 1 Optus Racing No. 25 car, starting P5 and P7 for the afternoon races.
Nick, in the Mobil 1 NTI Racing No. 2 car, on the other hand, was battling with power steering issues during both qualifying sessions which put him P17 and P10 for Race 8 and 9.
Race 8
Chaz: 4th
Nick: 19th
Both cars started strong off the line, with the help of some contact ahead, Chaz moved up the field to P4 after the first few laps.
After learnings from Saturday’s race, both cars ran long in the first stint, before taking two Dunlop Soft tyres on the loaded side. Both cars pitstops were quick but pitlane traffic hindered the release of Car 2.
Chaz showed some strong pace late in the race, pushing hard for a spot on the podium but just fell short finishing up P4. Nick continued to experience car trouble in the afternoon but drove home to P19.
Race 9
Chaz: 5th
Nick: 13th
As the sun was setting, lights went out for the final of three races at the Perth SuperSprint.
Chaz and Nick both had clean starts, making their way up the field to P8 and P10. The longer first stint strategy was used, giving both cars some clear air before pitting on lap 26 and 28.
Great effort from the pit crew as the Mobil 1 Optus Racing 25 car had the quickest pit stop of the race at 3.0 seconds.
Meanwhile Nick got held up in pit lane which put him out in traffic on track, he showed some great pace whilst battling the pack, making some good overtakes.
With strong pace towards the end of the race, Chaz was catching the leading pack but ran out of time leaving him with two top five finishes to round out the weekend.
There are plenty of positives to take from this weekend and eyes are looking forward to the Tasmania SuperSprint with cars hitting the track on 19th May.
Chaz Mostert
“Today was a much better day for us, we had a couple of top five results with forth in the first race and fifth in the second.
“A real credit to the Mobil 1 Optus Racing team, they worked extremely hard overnight and I was much happier with the performance today.
“Onto the next one in Tassie, got some good memories there, I got my first win there with the WAU team, so hopefully that brings us some luck.”
Nick Percat
“Wasn’t the ideal weekend for Mobil 1 NTI Racing Car Number 2, had really good car speed but didn’t quite get to show it.
“We will take the small wins, given the power steering issues, it was a highlight hauling the car into the top 10 for Race 9 quali.
“We will get the cars back to base, clean them up, go over all of the data with eyes now focused on Tasmania.”