Another top five finish for Scott Pye on Saturday has the DJR Team Penske driver eyeing a career first podium in today’s 200km finale to the Castrol Edge Townsville 400.

Race 16 saw the South Australian score his fourth top 10 in five races with a fifth place result, recorded after scything past factory stars James Courtney and Chaz Mostert in the closing stages.

Displaying typically strong soft tyre speed during the final stint, the result was set up by a season best qualifying of fifth as the team continues to build following highly publicised struggles early in the year.

With a handful of fourth and fifth place finishes from 85 career starts since making his full-time V8 Supercars debut at the beginning of 2013, Pye says he’s getting increasingly eager to spray some champagne.

“It’s crazy because the mindset at Winton was to be consistently in the top 10 and then we went and got a top five at Darwin,” Pye told Speedcafe.com.

“The mindset here was still kind of the top 10 but now I really want to get a podium. It’s been so long and I’m just working so hard to get that.

“We’ll wake up tomorrow knowing we have the potential to do it, but it’s a such competitive championship. We’ll just have to work bloody hard and hopefully it comes together.

“Qualifying was really the turning point for us because we’ve been strong in races, but if you start mid-pack it doesn’t matter, you are never going to win a race or get on the podium

“But when you are starting top five then you are actually a show. If we can qualify in the top five or top eight then it could be a good day.”

The last time Pye was on a podium – the season finale of the 2012 Dunlop Series – he was standing on the top step, looking down on rivals Mostert and Scott McLaughlin.

Having watched the duo take multiple race wins with the factory Ford and Volvo teams respectively over recent seasons in the main series, Pye says he must now make the most of his own opportunities.

The 25-year-old does not have a contract with DJRTP beyond this season, while uncertainty still remains over the future of Marcos Ambrose and the squad’s expected move to two cars.

“I’m finally in a team where we have potential to win races,” he said.

“I’ve had a pretty hard time since I came into V8s, especially when a lot of my colleagues from DVS have gone to really strong teams straight into the main series.

“I’ve had to wait for my shot but I feel like now is it, so I’m working as hard as I can with everything we’ve got here.

“We’ve got good resources and hopefully by the end of the year we are the team that everyone wants to drive for.

“Obviously I’d like to have that seat that everyone wants, but for me the goal is to get the team to the front and keep it there.”