That’s a wrap on the Tasmania SuperSprint which saw the team secure their first double top-10 of the season.
It was another frosty start to the day here in Tassie for Round 4 of the Supercars Championship.
The morning started off with two back-to-back qualifying sessions, where both the Mobil 1 Optus Racing car 25 and Mobil 1 NTI Racing car 2 lacked qualifying pace in both sessions.
Chaz Mostert starting out of P13 and P11 and Nick Percat P16 and P14 for Race 11 and 12 which would make for a tough race as qualifying is key for the SuperSprint format.
Race 11
Chaz: 6th
Nick: 10th
Race 11 was an exciting one, both cars had a great start which saw them gain a couple positions each, in the first few laps.
Chaz and Nick settled into the race and with strong race pace made their way up the field.
It was important to nail the pits to keep battling up the front and that’s exactly what the pit crew did, Nick pitted first, on lap 23 taking two rear SuperSoft tyres in 2.9 seconds.
Chaz followed closely behind on lap 26, with a whopping 2.7 second stop, resulting in the team securing the first and third fastest pitstop times.
Both cars were quick on track, with Nick overtaking Hill on lap 40 to bring it home in P10 and Chaz moving his way forward, as the quickest car on track, to P6.
Race 12
Chaz: 6th
Nick: 23rd
A milestone race for Nick which didn’t end the way we would like, Nick made up three spots off the line, before a loose brake pedal brought him into the lane early, to tighten it up for safety reasons.
Chaz made some good passing moves in the first half of the race before coming into pit lane to take two SuperSoft tyres.
Coming out of the pits in P14, Chaz swiftly made his way forward with some aggressive overtaking up to P6.
On the last lap, Chaz joined the battle for third but ran out of time to give it a crack leaving him in P6.
Late in the race, Nick was the sixth fastest on track and with the oldest tyres but was at the back of the field so wasn’t able to show it.
Both cars showed great pace this weekend, eyes move forward to Round 5 of the 2023 Supercars Championship where the team hope to warm-up in Darwin, post a cold weekend in Tassie, where cars will take to the track on Friday 16th June.
Nick Percat
“There were some positive steps for the Mobil 1 NTI Racing car 2 this weekend, we had a much faster car, with two top 10 finishes.
“The final race, my 300th didn’t quite go to plan, we had to pit early to fix a loose brake pedal.
“Can’t wait to head to Darwin where it is much warmer, both cars are heading in the right direction.”
Chaz Mostert
“Today was a better day, we started a bit too far back with our qualifying speed which hurt us in the race.
“The race car was really speedy, getting a couple of sixth places today will give us some good points in the bank.
“Looking forward to defrosting in Darwin.”