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[FF] All change for Mostert at PI..
by Sean Henshelwood
pic: FORCE Photography
All change for Mostert at Phillip Island..
September 15, 2008
After a frustrating start to his ‘senior’ open-wheel campaign, Brisbane’s teenage sensation Chaz Mostert finally cracked a smile at Phillip Island, the likeable 16-year old meeting all his pre-event expectations at arguably the toughest circuit on the calendar.
Featuring the highest outright speeds on the 2008 Genuine Ford Parts Australian Formula Ford calendar, Victoria’s serene Phillip Island circuit is anything but for competitors. “It’s a gutsy circuit and requires some pretty serious commitment from the drivers,” Chaz admitted prior to his maiden run on track. “I can’t wait to get out there..”
Adding to his anticipation was a change of team after Queensland Raceway, with Chaz and Eddie Mostert agreeing terms with renowned talent-scout Juston Cotter at Synergy Motorsports.. “A lot of the reason for our move away from Howard Racing has been taken out of context,” Eddie observed. “Basically we started the arrangement with Howards to create a ‘junior’ team to develop rising young talent to potentially get them into the team’s Supercar program. As it was new for them and new for us there were a few bugs to iron out, but basically there wasn’t anyone with the knowledge bank of years of Formula Ford competition that was available to the team. That and the fact that we only really only had a sporadic team-mate arrangement with Scotty Auld due to his budget, and he is relatively inexperienced in this category too, so there wasn’t anyone to go to when we needed to compare notes or data..
“With Synergy we had two experienced team-mates, and a team manager that was well versed with not just the sport, but importantly the Spectrum chassis, so we elected to look at that option, with I might add, Mark Howard’s blessing.
“Chaz tested with the team at Oran Park and actually set a time that was quicker than Laskazeski for a period, in the end Laska just topped him at the end, but with the car set up the way it should be and with some great advice and tips from the team, Chaz was immediately comfortable, and that was half the battle..”
It was clear from early practice that despite never having competed at Phillip Island before, Chaz was making huge improvements. Eleventh in final practice, just over a second off the fastest time, Chaz improved to ninth in qualifying despite dropping another tenth to the leaders.. The look on his face telling the story…
“Fantastic, I knew I could do it,” he beamed.. “my first top ten start..”
Cautious off the start, Chaz was swamped in the opening laps of race one, dropping back as far as 14th before mounting a late race recovery to tenth. Had he finished less than two and a half seconds further up the field, he would have been classified fifth.. It was that close.
Ninth by the close of the opening lap of Sunday morning’s race two, became sixth mid-race after Lucas Dumbrell and Ben Morley came to grief, handing the Queenslander his second points scoring result.
“The car was much nicer to drive than it has been all year,” Chaz smiled. “It’s still a bit crazy out there, but I’m managing to keep my nose clean, so we’ll see how we go in the final race.”
Testament to Chaz’s pace was his result. Again he finished in the pack and crossed the line less than a second off P4. Adding to his confidence too was his laptime in the second race; just seven tenths off that of race winner Daniel Erickson’s quickest lap..
He was getting quicker every time out the gate..
In the final race of the weekend Chaz made a strong start and moved forward quickly, battling Ben Walter and Jake Chapman for fourth place. Fifth by lap three, Chaz battled with Walter all the way to the closing lap where he became caught up in avoiding the aftermath of Nick Percat’s ill-fated move on leader Daniel Erickson. At flag-fall he held on for eighth but wondered what might have been.
“It was a great race, but I know I could have held on for fifth and maybe even fourth after the leaders went off, but we’ll take eighth.. It has been a great weekend all round and I’d really like to thank Justin (Cotter), Paul (Laskazeski) and Brad (Lowe) for their support and that of the team, this has been a great weekend for us and puts us right where I’d hoped to be coming to the end of the season.”
And to add further credibility to Chaz’s words was his speed in the final race; Chaz’s best lap, just a quarter of a second slower than the best of new team-mate Laskazeski – the man who won the race and the round..
He’d finally arrived..!
The penultimate round of the Genuine Ford Parts Australian Formula Ford Championship will be held at Tasmania’s popular Symmons Plains circuit on November 21-23 as a support act to the V8 Supercars Championship Series.
Qualifying1. Daniel Erickson (1:37.7686), 2. Nick Percat (1:37.7687), 3. Paul Laskazeski (1:38.0726), 4. Jake Chapman (1:38.3502), 5. Trent Harrison (1:38.3740),6. Scott Pye (1:38.5743), 7. Ben Walter (1:38.5874), 8. Lucas Dumbrell (1:38.9344), 9. Chaz Mostert (1:38.9965), 10. Andrew Waite (1:39.0445)
Race 1 (10-laps)1. Daniel Erickson (Spectrum 011b), 2. Nick Percat (Mygale SJ07A), 3. Paul Laskazeski (Spectrum 011b), 4. Jake Chapman (Spectrum 011b), 5. Scott Pye (Spectrum 011b), 6. Brad Lowe (Spectrum 011c), 7. Ben Walter (Spectrum 011c), 8. Cameron Spence (Spectrum 011c), 9. Lucas Dumbrell (Mygale SJ07A), 10. Chaz Mostert (Spectrum 011)
Race 2 (10-laps)1. Daniel Erickson (Spectrum 011b), 2. Paul Laskazeski (Spectrum 011b), 3. Nick Percat (Mygale SJ07A), 4. Jake Chapman (Spectrum 011b), 5. Brad Lowe (Spectrum 011c), 6. Chaz Mostert (Spectrum 011), 7. Ben Walter (Spectrum 011c), 8. Cameron Spence (Spectrum 011c), 9. Nick Foster (Mygale SJ08A), 10. Trent Harrison (Mygale SJ08A)
Race 3 (10-laps)1. Paul Laskazeski (Spectrum 011b), 2. Jake Chapman (Spectrum 011b), 3. Martin Swindells (Spectrum 011b), 4. Kristian Lindbom (Mygale SJ07A), 5. Ben Walter (Spectrum 011c), 6. Scott Pye (Spectrum 011b), 7. Nick Percat (Mygale SJ07A), 8. Chaz Mostert (Spectrum 011), 9. Ben Morley (Spectrum 011c), 10. Brad Lowe (Spectrum 011c)
2008 Genuine Ford Parts Australian Formula Ford Championship – series points (points after six rounds of eight): 1. Paul Laskazeski (272 points), 2. Nick Percat (198), 3. Kristian Lindbom (164), 4. Ben Morley (151), 5. Adam Graham (146), 6. Daniel Erickson (138), 7. Scott Pye (128), 8. Brad Lowe (99), 9. Jake Chapman (89), 10. Rob Storey (46), 17. Chaz Mostert (10)
Chaz Mostert is proudly supported by Kitco Transport, DIY Pool Fencing, Quality Plasterboard Accessories, Absolute Glass, Northline Transport, Logan Village Smash, Beenleigh Auto Trim and Comspread Engineering.
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