Chaz Mostert rewarded his Walkinshaw Andretti United crew with a podium finish in Race 25 at Sandown after a pre-race engine change.
Following Sunday’s back-to-back qualifying sessions for the Repco Supercars Championship, the team pulled the motor out of the #25 Mobil 1 Optus Racing ZB Commodore.
Speedcafe.com understands WAU noticed high water pressure in the engine and decided to complete a precautionary motor swap prior to the race.
The Clayton squad managed to finish the job in one hour and 15 minutes, getting Mostert out for Race 25 to start from his third-place grid slot.
Making a clean getaway, the 30-year-old moved up to second at the first corner and survived the pit stop cycle to finish on the podium.
“It’s been a big 24 hours for the team,” said Mostert.
“The team worked extremely hard last night to turn this car into a faster car today and then to get through qualifying with a third and a fifth, we were pretty happy with that.
“We found that we needed to change the engine, so a big credit to our team, they worked extremely hard all the way up until the last minute there to get this car out.
“Just super pumped to reward them with a podium.
“I love this place, love racing around here, and the effort has been second-to-none, so really proud of the whole team to get this thing back out there.”
The race start wasn’t straight forward, with Mostert and Tickford Racing’s Cameron Waters banging wheels in the braking zone for the opening corner.
While Waters found himself running wide over the Turn 1 exit kerb, Mostert settled into second behind Shane van Gisbergen.
“I think we might have just nipped wheels going into Turn 1 there,” Mostert said of the touch with Waters.
“That kind of shuffled us both a little wide, but racing is racing.
“We were into it hard and I came out the other side better off and I was able to just get my tyres up in second there.
“Goes your way sometimes, doesn’t go your way [others], so yeah, super happy with this podium.”
Van Gisbergen cruised to victory in Race 25, with Race 26 scheduled to commence at 16:20 AEST.
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