Amid Broc Feeney’s domination of the weekend, Supercars broke with the traditional of having the pole man analyse his Top 10 Shootout lap with Mark Larkham in the Hino Hub.
Instead, ninth quickest driver Mostert was called in to break down his effort and delivered a series of insights that drew immediate praise from the on-air broadcast team.
Mostert spoke in great depth about the particulars of the lap, detailing challenging characteristics of the circuit and the driving techniques deployed to counter them.
A notable contrast from Mostert’s often light-hearted persona, the segment has been republished by Supercars on YouTube and is well worth a watch below.
Among the most interesting insights came at the very start, where Mostert spoke of the role that confidence has in a driver’s performance.
Mostert has been one of the category’s biggest stars for over a decade but has recently been overshadowed by second-year teammate Ryan Wood.
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The two-time Bathurst winner’s qualifying form at the last three events has been particularly ropey, with an average starting position of 13.6 across Tasmania, Perth and Darwin.
“Just to sum up in general what it takes to get pole in this game and how tight the margins are, it’s a confidence sport,” said Mostert.
“This game is week in, week out, the more you are confident round after round and you get wins, you get podiums, you get more poles, your confidence as a driver builds more and more.
“When you don’t feel on top of your game and you’re a little bit behind, you take more risk with your car [setup], you’re trying to find a bit more of a sweet window, and you do that as a driver as well.
“For me coming into this year, I’ve been really up and down and not really found that smooth run of a couple of rounds. I think you can really see that my performance hurt a bit throughout this year.
“When you see someone like Broc, who just went out there and did the best job that we’ve seen out of anyone in that top 10 by a fair margin, it’s called confidence.
“That’s the best way I can sum it up.”
Mostert’s race on Sunday at Hidden Valley was compromised by a confidence issue of a different kind.
The driver felt a clutch problem at the start of the warm-up lap and, with a clutch failure at the 2024 Adelaide 500 still fresh in his mind, elected to take the start from pit lane.
Ultimately, it appeared the clutch would have been fine to take the start on track as Mostert undertook his two pit stops without issue.
“[I was] having nightmares from Adelaide at the end of last year all over again,” he explained post-race, having fought his way through to a 12th place finish.
“I went to do the practice start and the clutch did the same thing at Adelaide, kind of went to the floor, which is pretty nerve-wracking.
“Once I did get it going, I just was thinking… it was safer to start in pit lane today than to start on the grid.
“Gutted, but I got the eyes on, drove as hard as I could, and I didn’t think we were anywhere, but we had pretty good pace, that was the best the car had been all weekend.
“To pop out 12th, I have no idea how we did that. But I’ll take the points, especially after such a hard day. Never give up.”
Mostert remains fifth in the standings, 479 adrift of leader Feeney and 257 ahead of teammate Wood, who is just outside the Finals cut-off in 11th.
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