That’s a wrap on Round 5 of the 2023 Supercars Championship in the Top End, it has been a rollercoaster of a day for the Mobil 1 NTI Racing Car 2 and the Mobil 1 Optus Racing Car 25.
The morning started off with two back-to-back qualifying sessions which saw Nick Percat put together a strong lap in the first session securing 7th position, but the following session the car in front of him ran wide dragging dirt back on the track, hurting his lap, and leaving him P24.
it was tough on the other side of the garage as well, with Chaz Mostert lining up position 25 for both races due to lack of qualifying pace.
Race 14
Chaz: 13th
Nick: 19th
It was a hot afternoon, with the outside temperature in the 30s, as Chaz and Nick lined up on the grid for the first of two 35-lap races for the day.
Both cars got off to a clean start with Nick maintaining his position and Chaz making some aggressive passes settling into the race.
It was full steam ahead for the second half of the race as Chaz took four tyres, flying through the field with the fastest lap of the race.
A collision with David Reynolds late in the race saw Nick receive a 15 second time penalty, after crossing the finish line in P10, dropping him down the post to P19.
Chaz continued to charge through the field in the final laps, passing the checkered flag in P13, up 11 spots from where he started.
Race 15
Chaz: 9th
Nick: 15th
The final race of the day got off to a great start, as both cars had strong race speed, they picked off cars one by one in tow.
Half way through the race both cars took four Dunlop SuperSoft tyres, taking an aggressive approach to continue hunting down the field.
Late in the race Nick passed Anton De Pasquale to take home P15 whilst on the first corner of the last lap Chaz got Todd Hazelwood to bring home P9.
Chaz and Nick were the big movers and shakers of the race, up 24 spots combined with Chaz up 15 and Nick up 9.
There is work to do on the qualifying car, but a productive end to the weekend gives us more to build on heading to the NTI Townsville 500 where cars will hit the track on Friday 7th July.
Chaz Mostert
“Definitely not the results we were after this weekend but on a positive note, we learnt a lot.
“We really struggled with qualifying pace of the car but towards the end of the weekend we built a really strong race car.
“We showed good resilience when the chips were down, a massive thank you goes out to the WAU team for their effort this weekend.”
Nick Percat
“It’s been an up and down weekend for the Mobil 1 NTI Racing Car 2, it was great to qualify in the top 10 this morning.
“Overall, we have made some good improvements on the car as a team, qualifying is a key area we need to improve on.
“Loved having the indigenous livery on the car, both cars looked amazing, I’m pumped we get to run these liveries at the NTI Townsville 500 in a couple weeks’ time.”