What a way to finish off our weekend at the NTI Townsville 500, we will take two in the top five and a solid bank of points.

It was an early start for the Team this morning as we surprised Chaz Mostert with a special one-off livery to celebrate his 200th race with the Team. A huge thank you goes out to our friends at Optus, who generously removed their branding on the car and replaced it with a bold ‘200’ on the Mobil 1 Optus Racing No. 1 to mark the milestone.

Chaz and Ryan backed up yesterday’s strong qualifying form with another impressive session. Ryan secured P4 on the grid, with Chaz lining up just behind him in P6 for the final race of the weekend.

Race 22

Chaz Mostert: 4th
Ryan Wood: 5th

Ryan had an absolute flyer off the line, launching from fourth with elbows out as he immediately took the fight to the front of the field. It was an aggressive opening stint, with him wasting no time in making his intentions clear.

Chaz kept it measured in the opening stint, carefully managing the gap ahead to keep his tyre temperatures from heating up too much, before preparing to attack later on in the stint.

On lap 20, the Mobil 1 Optus Racing No. 1 peeled into the lane for its first stop. The crew delivered another great stop, sending Chaz back out on track into a clear pocket of fresh air.

A few laps later, Ryan brought the Mobil 1 Truck Assist Racing No. 2 into the lane. With a shorter second stint ahead, he was able to push harder and make the most of his tyres as the stint continued.

Running in P4 and P5, Chaz came into the lane to give Ryan some clear air and the opportunity to push. Once the pit stop cycle played out, Chaz had jumped into effectively P3, with Ryan holding P5.

On older tyres than the cars behind, Chaz soon came under pressure from Cam Waters, who made the move with just seven laps remaining to snatch the final podium position.

But it wasn’t over yet, with two laps remaining Waters was given the call to maximum fuel save, Chaz had both pace and fuel in hand, reeling him in over the closing laps. Despite closing the gap rapidly, the checkered flag came just a little too soon, with Chaz crossing the line in P4 and Ryan right behind in P5.

Overall, a strong weekend here at the NTI Townsville 500, we have a few weeks to turn the cars around for Perth, a track the team has been strong at over the last few years.

Chaz Mostert

“Well, there you have it, P4 for our 200th race with the Team in Townsville, we were so close to a belt buckle, but those front three guys are super quick this weekend.

“Really proud of our guys and girls, we made a lot of inroads throughout the weekend, qualifying all three races in the top 10 and three top 10 race results too.

“A massive thank you to Optus for what they did with their branding on the car today, it looked mega out there, just a shame we couldn’t put it on the podium.”

Ryan Wood

“It was an eventful weekend here at the NTI Townsville 500, P5 today, a new PB for me here, not a bad way to wrap up the weekend.

“Got to 2nd early in the race after a mega start and we struggled to hit the fuel number that needed to be hit with a combination of driver errors meant P5 was all we had today.

“We will come back, learn but all in all having both cars in the top five isn’t something to complain about, a great bounce back after yesterday.”