A not unhappy Chaz Mostert admits he should be starting Race 15 at the Pizza Hut Winton SuperSprint from the back of the top 10 and believes car development is required to make further inroads.
After qualifying third and finishing fourth in Race 13 yesterday, the Mobil 1 Optus Racing driver qualified fourth and 10th for Race 14 and Race 15 respectively.
Saturday’s effort, which nearly netted the two-time Bathurst 1000 winner a podium, marked a major turnaround from the previous round of the Repco Supercars Championship.
At Wanneroo Raceway, Mostert and team-mate Nick Percat lacked pace and found themselves pegged to the bottom of the pile in qualifying.
Even if not yet back to the very front, Mostert’s form at Winton Motor Raceway is a promising reversal of fortunes.
“That’s where we’re at, to be honest,” said Mostert of qualifying at the rural Victorian circuit.
“That’s kind of where our car has been this year. Some tracks [it] really suits quite well.
“We worked out where we went wrong from Perth, so we shouldn’t have been where we were there.
“Here, that’s kind of where we are on pace.
“Not unhappy, but definitely have got some work to do to try and make the car a little bit more user-friendly for us.
“We’ve done a lot of soul searching with the package we have.
“I feel like for us to maximise what we’ve got, we kind of know where the car needs to be.
“For us, we’ve got a little small development we need to do before the next couple of rounds.”
While Mostert was there or thereabouts, Percat could only muster 16th and a lacklustre 27th in Sunday morning’s two qualifying sessions.
Wildcard entry Jayden Ojeda will start both races today from 23rd.
Walkinshaw Andretti United yesterday recovered one position to be fifth in the teams’ championship.