When Chaz Mostert lines up on the grid at Hidden Valley Raceway this Saturday afternoon, he won’t be thinking about the 399 races that got him there.
He’ll just be thinking about winning the race – and if he can’t do that, he’ll be thinking about winning the next one.
You don’t get to 400 Supercars starts without a racing driver’s single-mindedness, after all.
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“You’re just so focused on the next event, the next race, trying to go for race wins,” he told MotorRacing 360. “It’s pretty hard to reflect on 400 races. I definitely don’t feel like I’ve done 400, but looking definitely at the stats, I’ve been around quite a while now.”
For a little over 13 years ago, to be precise. It was at the 2013 Perth 360 that a 21-year-old Mostert first belted into a Supercars machine with Dick Johnson Racing. He finished a perfectly respectable 15th, but it took him less than three months to reach the top step of the podium with a superb rookie victory at Queensland Raceway.
Now the second oldest driver on the grid, 34-year-old Mostert can still remember the sensation of getting his main-game debut.
“I just remember first getting to Supercars and just being so honoured to be part of a grid,” he said. “Seeing your last name on the rear door for the first time and having the Mostert name – not that we had much motorsport heritage or anything like that – was a real proud moment.
“Everything you work through from go karting through your support categories, and then you’re on the grid banging doors with legends and feeling well out of place and racing against guys you always watched growing up as well – it’s just something that was so surreal.
“Then the competitive streak kicks back in, especially when you’re a young guy and you start just seeing cars as other cars and try and get past.”
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He’s only the 22nd driver to reach the 400-race milestone in the history of the Australian Touring Car Championship.
Unsurprisingly, those 400 races have been eventful. They’ve also been professionally lucrative.
Victory in Symmons Plains last time out was his 29th career win. Two of those successes were on the sport’s biggest stage, having won the Bathurst 1000 with Paul Morris in 2014 and then Lee Holdsworth in 2021.
Going with those victories are 114 podiums – one every 3.5 races – and 27 pole positions.
Finally, last year, he added the championship to the CV, the long-awaited final box to tick.
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“I’m just very honoured to be in this championship for 400 races, which is unbelievable,” he said.
“You’ve seen so many drivers come and go over the years and not make the milestones that they deserve to. I’m just honoured to be still sitting on this grid, to have achieved what I have achieved.
“But saying that, you’re just so focused on the next race, and you keep trying to win. I’m still 21 in the mind, which is kind of hard to turn off, and especially when you’re racing against all these young whippersnappers now, the aggression is still there.
“I hope I’ve got another at least 100 in me to try and get another championship and try and get another Bathurst.”
Along with his accolades, Mostert can also count himself as an alumnus of some of the sport’s grandee teams.
He made his debut for Dick Johnson Racing in 2013 before switching to Ford Performance Racing the following season, sticking with the brand as it transitioned through its Prodrive and Rod Nash identities before eventually taking the Tickford name.
His switch from Ford to Holden was controversial among some fans in 2020, but Walkinshaw, the former Holden manufacturer team, was too strong an opportunity to turn down.
“For me just racing for so many special team owners over the years [is special],” he said. “Especially DJR and Dick [Johnson] for giving me that chance in 2013.
“Getting involved with FPR at that time and getting those cars performance-wise really quickly turned around was something pretty cool, then going back to Tickford, which gave me the chance through development series – that was just such an honour to race with them for a lot of years.
“Now racing for the Walkinshaw name is something that is an absolute honour as well.
“You look at it as a whole, and it happens so fast, your career. One moment you’re winning Bathurst, next minute you’re watching from a hospital bed because you were too eager – it’s just the highs and lows of being in Supercars, and I wouldn’t change one thing.”
Not only did Walkinshaw make him a champion last year, but this season it’s made him an inaugural Toyota factory driver, with the team returning to homologation status with the Japanese auto giant.
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Toyota’s first campaign has been expectedly rough around the edges, and the defending champion hasn’t hit the ground running as well as teammate Ryan Wood.
Wood collected the brand’s first poles and victories in New Zealand, whereas Mostert has just seven top-10 qualifying results from 16 races and, before Tasmania last time out, had just one podium finish. Today he sits 10th on the title table, right on the bubble of finals qualification.
But then things clicked in Symmons Plains. Storming form pole to victory in Friday, the potential of car and driver finally delivered.
“No doubt this year the inconsistency has really been the thing that’s hurt me, but results like Tassie really show when we do piece it together, we’re right in the mix,” he said. “I definitely needed that at this part of the year.
“It’s really blown my expectations, how quickly the Toyota Supra’s come on this year.”
It leaves Mostert cautiously optimistic that his 400th race could be one to savour on and off the track.
“It’s the first time the Supra’s ever been here. It’s really hard to say how you think you’re going to go this weekend, because it’s brand new for us. If anything, I’m just excited to get to another new track with the with the new car and see what it does.
“This is probably the hottest round that we’ll go to, so we’ve gone from one end of the spectrum to the other, but we’ll just see how we go. But I’m up for the challenge.
“I’m glad coming off a race win as well – you remember that you can do it.
“It’s funny, you can go four or five races or rounds, and it could be just that short period, and you’ll start to question, ‘Can I do it?’ So it’s pretty cool to come off Tassie, and no doubt we just need a bit more consistency and really get that base set-up for me in it and we’ll try and truck on to the finals.”
Last year Mostert proved it’s not how you start but how you finish. The same can be true again this year.
“You’ve still got to keep pushing forward, you’ve still got to dream, and I know I’ve still got plenty to give.”
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