That’s what you call the highs and lows of Motorsport! Chaz Mostert starts the year off with a shiny trophy whilst Ryan Wood’s race ended before it began.
The weekend started off with two practice sessions on Friday where both cars rolled out behind the eight ball.
The crew worked tirelessly between sessions to tune up the cars but unfortunately a storm rolled in just as the final practice session commenced meaning the cars would be rolling out into qualifying with a new set-up.
It was a great start to the day, with the Mobil 1 Truck Assist Racing No. 2 and the Mobil 1 Optus Racing No. 25 banking strong laps in early. Both cars were on the money as they crossed the line, with Chaz securing P4 and Ryan P8, each getting a ticket to the Top 10 Shootout.
Unfortunately, Woody lifted for a yellow flag on the last corner of the final lap, but didn’t lift quite enough which resulted in his lap being deleted and moved down to P14.
Chaz got a lap to himself around The Mountain and boy did he make the most of it! Leaving nothing on the table, Chaz secured himself a second row start with P3.
It was eyes forward to the race for Ryan, but his luck didn’t get much better, his race was over before it started after he was a pinball in a four-car wide sandwich at turn 1 lap 1 which broke his steering and ended his day.
The Mobil 1 Optus Racing No. 25 had a mega start but had nowhere to go with weaving cars ahead dropping down a couple positions.
With strong pace late in the race, setting the fastest lap and narrowly missing a rogue tyre, Chaz was on the hunt chasing the two cars ahead.
A late safety car with three laps to go ending Chaz’s chances of catching the leading cars, but we will take a podium for the first race of the year!
It’s a big night ahead for the crew on Car 2 to get the car back in shape, eyes are forward to tomorrow with another qualifying, top 10 shootout and Race 2 ahead.
Ryan Wood
“Today was a rollercoaster! It was awesome to nearly make the Top 10 Shootout, pretty unfortunate the lap got deleted but we go into quali tomorrow very confident knowing we have a quick car.
“Not the start to the season we wanted after not even finishing a lap in the race, pretty guttered to be honest, this just makes me hungrier to get back behind the wheel tomorrow and show what we can do in the Mobil 1 Truck Assist Racing No. 2.
“Really cool to see Chaz pick up a podium, the team have done a mega job with the cars this weekend!
“I know I have a great crew behind me, we’ll be hard at work tonight, but we’ll have the car back in shape for tomorrow and come back even stronger.”
Chaz Mostert
“This is probably the most fun I have had driving this car! I love this sport when the car is hooked up and today the crew gave me a rocket!
“We didn’t come out very strong in the first practice session but the crew moved mountains and turned these cars around, this is probably the best car I have driven in the Gen3 era.
“Pretty cool to pick up a shiny trophy in the first race, we will put our heads together tonight so we can go out swinging again tomorrow.”