Ipswich lost its fixture despite being the home track for the Queensland-based teams, leaving the Gold Coast and Townsville street races as the only events in the Sunshine State.
While QR has long been derided for its simple six-turn layout, the venue has been transformed by a series of major facility upgrades since it was purchased by Tony Quinn in 2021.
Mostert, who grew up in Browns Plains south of Brisbane and is now based on the Gold Coast, is happy to see the circuit back on the calendar and is eager for it to reclaim a permanent place.
Supercars intends to return to Queensland Raceway in 2026, although it’s understood to be the most likely to lose its slot should a deal not be reached with teams to accommodate 14 events.
“It’s a credit to Quinny and his whole team, any race track he gets involved in he always takes that next step,” said Mostert of the venue ahead of the weekend.
“This place looks beautiful, the way he’s upgraded the garages, the support paddocks, the toilets, the facilities, the viewing up on the hill and the new little grandstand he’s built with the shades, trying to look after families, and the cafe… it’s going to be an awesome event.
“Hopefully we can break a record for the amount of people out here. It’ll be hard to break the old records from when the [Queensland] 500 used to be here, but I’m expecting a big showing.
“I just want to call out to everyone to bring as many people as you can into QR because we want to keep this event alive and keep showcasing Supercars out here locally.”
Mostert has an affinity with the venue having scored his maiden Supercars race win at the circuit in 2013 while driving for Dick Johnson Racing.
While that was the only year in which Mostert has driven for a Queensland-based team, the Walkinshaw Andretti United star says it has always felt like a home round.
“I think it’s also the family vibe for me here,” he said.
“I grew up pretty close to the track, probably within 45 minutes, and I always feel that hometown advantage every time I come here.”
Another laying claim to Ipswich as his home race is Triple Eight’s Will Brown, who hails from – and continues to live in – nearby Toowoomba.
Brown is among the drivers in this year’s field who is yet to make a Supercars Championship start at QR, having been a Super2 driver in 2019.
“Every time I’ve ever been here when I was younger the crowd was massive, so I think it’ll be an awesome turnout, especially after a few years off,” he said.
“I think I bought 52 Sunday tickets. I’ve got a lot of mates coming out on Sunday, I’m looking forward to that.”
While private testing has largely been abolished this year in favour of two compulsory full-field days, Triple Eight was able to run at QR last week with wildcard Zach Bates.
Brown and teammate Broc Feeney attended the test alongside the Red Bull Ampol team’s race engineers in a clear bid to extract as much as they could ahead of the race weekend.
The reigning champion is hoping to turn the tables on Feeney, who has dominated recent events amid Brown’s patchy form.
“Obviously for us it is our test track now with Triple Eight, so hopefully we can be quite strong here and have a bit of a bounce back,” added Brown.
“I felt like Townsville was a bit stronger on my side, felt pretty good in the races, so I just need to bounce back a bit here with qualifying.”
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