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That’s the reality for the talented Ford star and the Walkinshaw Andretti United team after a Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500 that promised much but ultimately delivered little.
Mostert appeared the only driver capable of threatening Cam Waters on Saturday but fell afoul of a rare gear position sensor issue and came home 10th.
He was then running fourth on Sunday when the team inadvertently attempted to use teammate Ryan Wood’s fuel hose at his second pit stop, resulting in a third trip to the lane that left him 11th.
Mostert labelled the event “one of the more disappointing weekends I’ve had at the races in some time.”
“We had a car that had a lot of pace across the weekend, though not a lot to show for it which always stings,” he added.
“You really want to make the most of those days when you’re in the window, and we weren’t able to capitalise on that.”
Mostert had entered the weekend 225 points behind championship leader Will Brown but is now 309 behind with only 300 left available at the Adelaide season finale.
He’d endured a shaky start to the 2024 campaign before racing into contention with a burst of mid-season results that included top five finishes in nine of 10 races from Wanneroo to Symmons Plains.
Mostert was just 81 points adrift of leader Brown after that stretch before losing ground at Sandown, Bathurst and the Gold Coast.
The 32-year-old is a two-time Bathurst 1000 winner but remains yet to win a Supercars title, only once heading to the decider as a contender – a long shot in the five-way Newcastle battle of 2017.
Mostert remains third in the 2024 standings, a position he finished in 2021 and ’22 before taking fourth last year amid a Camaro blitz.
While the Gold Coast weekend was one of missed opportunities, WAU team principal Carl Faux said the team could be proud of its efforts.
“We’re smiling. Everyone is super happy with Chaz Mostert’s performance all weekend, and Sam Scaffidi and Terry Kerr in the garage did an amazing job,” he said.
“Things were looking good with Chaz on Saturday, but then we had a sensor failure on the gearbox that meant we lost 28 seconds in the pitstop.
“Maybe Supercars needs to look at a failsafe to stop that happening again.
“So, we missed out on a surfboard trophy on Saturday, then on Sunday another one went begging with a fuelling problem.
“There was nothing wrong with the engineering and strategy.”
Wood also had little to show from the Gold Coast; a sensational fourth in regular qualifying on Sunday coming to naught with a kerb strike in the Shootout and a first-lap incident in the race.
“Ryan Wood had splendid one-lap pace but is having to learn from his mistakes,” added Faux. “He is getting more and more experience and will eventually nail it.”
