 Chaz Mostert has retaken the lead of the 2010 Genuine Ford Parts Australian Formula Ford Championship after the completion of Round 3 at Winton last weekend.
The 18 year old once again proved why he is the 2010 championship favourite, dominating both practice sessions on Friday, before taking out Race 1 by a comfortable three second margin the following day.
Mostert had to settle for second in the overall round result however, thanks to an unwanted bodywork addition to his Spectrum 012 early in Sunday’s Race 3 which left him unable to challenge eventual victor Ashley Walsh.
“We got a piece of someone else’s nose cone stuck in the rear suspension,” explained Mostert after the race. “It was very unfortunate, and made the car quite hard to drive.
“We’d missed the jump at the start, but were right behind Ash (Walsh) and looking alright. Once the problem happened on lap three, it was just about hanging on. It was oversteering quite badly with the extra bodywork caught in the back of it, and it added a fair bit of drag on the straights as well. When Geoff (Uhrhane) got to us there wasn’t much we could do, but I’ll take third considering the problem.”
Earlier, Race 2 had yielded a second place finish for Mostert – less than four tenths of a second behind Walsh. After losing out at the start, Mostert spent the entire race in second place, setting the fastest lap of the race on lap three in pursuit of his fellow Spectrum pilot.
The second race had seen a reversal of the results from Saturday, where Mostert had led all ten laps to win at a canter.
“It was really good to get a win after our tough run in Queensland” he said of Race 1. “We took the lead on the first lap and didn’t look back, basically. It helped us that Ash and Nick (Foster) were battling it out for second in the early stages - that allowed us to build a nice margin. Our car wasn’t quite perfect and we were starting to struggle towards the end, so it was good we had that lead up our sleave.”
At the end of the weekend, the Queenslander was pleased to have retaken the championship lead heading toward the half-way point of the season.
“The championship really is what it’s all about this year for me,” he reflected after the final race, “so I’m very pleased with our weekend.
“The incident in Queensland cost us a lot of points, and we knew we had to come here and reply straight away. In an eight round championship, you can’t have two bad ones in a row.”
The Australian Formula Ford Championship now takes a four week break before heading to Darwin’s Hidden Valley Raceway for Round 4 on June 18-20.
“I’m looking forward to Hidden Valley,” said the Factory Enterprises backed driver. “The long main straight makes for exciting racing as everyone tries to slip-stream each other into Turn 1.
“We had an up and down run last year, but finished the weekend by passing eleven cars in twelve laps during the final race, so I’ve certainly had good passing practice there. Hopefully we won’t have to do that this year though, and we can have a clean run through all three races.”
Chaz Mostert is proudly supported by Factory Enterprises, DIY Pool Fencing, LVS Smash Repairs, and Oberron Quarries.
RESULTS: ROUND 3 – WINTON MOTOR RACEWAY
Chaz Mostert, Factory Enterprises, Spectrum 012
Qualifying: 2nd - 1:25.7766
Race 1: 1st – 10 of 10 laps led
Race 2: 2nd – fastest lap of race
Race 3: 3rd
Round: 2nd – 50 points
Championship position: 1st - 97 points
For further information please contact Media Manager Damon Hill on 0411 669 910, or damon@signatureseries.com.
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