The morning kicked off with two back-to-back qualifying sessions which saw Chaz put together two strong laps to line up P3 and P 4, while Ryan struggled with car balance which saw him qualify P13 and P18.

Race 26

Chaz: 6th
Ryan: 9th

Chaz was in the thick of the action in the opening lap with Will Brown, battling for P3, while Ryan got off the line strong, picking up one position.

Continuing his charge forward in the Mobil 1 Truck Assist Racing No. 2, Ryan was the biggest mover early, climbing from P13 to P10 in the opening laps.

Chaz came into the lane on Lap 9 for his compulsory pit stop taking two tyres and going for the undercut. The strategy worked well, giving him some clear air and allowing him to make plenty of ground on the cars he was battling before the stop.

On the other side of the garage, Ryan followed a similar strategy, stopping on Lap 14 and committing to the longer stint home.

Once the pitstops cycled through, Chaz found himself at the front of the field and leading the race. Unfortunately, he was run wide by Kai Allen, costing him three positions and dropping him back to P4.

Ryan was busy managing his tyres through the second half of the race, doing everything he could to keep the cars behind at bay as they closed in on fresher rubber.

Chaz ultimately ran out of grip in the closing stages of the race to cross the line in P6, with Ryan coming home in P9.

Race 27

Chaz: 5th
Ryan: 14th

Ryan had another great start off the line, gaining two positions before continuing his charge through the opening laps. Once again the biggest mover, he gained another four spots to climb six positions in five laps.

Chaz settled into P4 early on and had plenty of pace, keeping the cars around him honest as the battle continued.

Ryan was one of the first to pit, coming into the lane on Lap 15 for four tyres, with Chaz followed suit a lap later, also taking four tyres as the team looked to give both cars the best chance of finishing off strong.

Chaz was running in P5 and Ryan P9 when the safety car was called with 15 laps remaining, bunching the field back together.

Chaz got run wide by Feeney, dropping him to P6 whilst Ryan was in a big battle pack of cars with fresher tyres than him, dropping down to P12.

As they say, “safety cars cause safety cars”. A second safety car was called with 6 laps to go, setting up for a sprint to the finish.

Chaz mad the most of the restart, sending the Mobil 1 Optus Racing No. 1 down the inside of Matt Payne to take P5. While Ryan slipped back to P14, by the checkered flag, but still came away four positions better off than where he started.

It was the results we were chasing, but there are plenty of positives to take from the pace and progress made on both cars across the weekend.

Chaz Mostert

“Not a bad start to our weekend at QR, our quali car today was really strong, starting on the second row for both races, but we still need to find a bit of time to make the front row.

“A P5 and P6 today, not too shabby. That last race was pretty full on towards the end there, I’m not sure I blinked once.

“It was awesome to see so many fans out on the hill out there today, we can really feel the atmosphere whilst we are out there.”

Ryan Wood

“Qualifying really put us on the back foot today, starting P13 and P18 wasn’t where we wanted to be, so it made our races pretty hard.

“We moved up early in both races, the pace was there especially in the second race but the safety car really hurt us with drivers around me on fresher tyres.

“We know the direction we want to head in tomorrow, so we will tune up the Mobil 1 Truck Assist Racing No. 2 overnight so we can finish up the pointy end, where we should be.”