Prodrive Racing (Australia)’s Chaz Mostert has continued his recent run of form, topping off his weekend at the Perth SuperSprint with a podium in race eight. Starting from second place Mostert maintained his position throughout the 83 laps, displaying strong pace in hot conditions. Teammate Mark Winterbottom was able to finish fourth after experiencing difficulties with rear grip, however was able to bolster his championship standings with another consistent result. Jason Bright has emphasised the benefit of improvements made with the MEGA Racing FG X, settling into a strong rhythm in the car. After starting seventh, electing to pit late on a two stop strategy put Bright back in the field to finish 13th despite passing a number of competitors in the dying stages. Cameron Waters was the only PRA car to run a three stop strategy with the hope of passing as many cars as possible in the final stint. With good pace Waters was able to pass a number of cars, including his teammate Bright on the final lap, improving his confidence leading into the next Supercars event at Winton.
Mark Winterbottom – #5 The Bottle-O PRA Ford:
Qualifying: 3rd – 54.6243s
Race 8: 4th
“The car was pretty good but we struggled with rear grip for a lot of the race. We’ve made a lot of ground this weekend which is really positive. Changes overnight in strategy direction, going back to sort of what we had before Phillip Island helped today and has given us a good direction heading into Winton. Fourth is another strong result, I’m happy we’ve got some consistency going and that we’re making gains so bring on the next one.”
Cameron Waters – #6 Monster Energy PRA Ford:
Qualifying: 13th – 55.1713s
Race 8: 12th
“The race today wasn’t too bad. We did something different, split the cars up and it worked pretty well. We moved forward in the race but we had to re-use a set of tyres which cost me a lot of time. If we didn’t have that we would have finished a bit further up. Even if a safety car had of come we would have been in the box seat. It was a good day with the strategy; I think it was the right call. The car’s pretty quick and I think I was driving pretty well so I’m excited to go to Winton now and keep on building on what we’ve been doing and learn from this weekend.”
Chaz Mostert – #55 Supercheap Auto PRA Ford:
Qualifying: 2nd – 54.6209s
Race 8: 2nd
“Awesome to get another podium this year. It wasn’t the best weekend overall but today was pretty awesome. The boys worked pretty hard last night, we made some big changes with the car and got it back feeling good for qualifying, closer to what we’ve had for the past couple of rounds. We’re starting to find a base with our car but we’ve got a bit more work to do yet. It was good to bag some more points and get another consistent result so I’m pretty happy.”
Jason Bright – #56 MEGA Bulk Fuels PRA Ford:
Qualifying: 7th – 54.8638s
Race 8: 13th
“I’m very happy with the pace of the car. We had a good qualifying session and then the pace of the car in the race was good but we lost out on strategy. We lost track position on both stops to a lot of the guys who were slower than us and lost a lot of time getting past them all again and we can’t afford to do that. All in all I’m still really happy with the weekend. I think we could have been on for a top eight today at worst had we have kept track position early on.”
Tim Edwards – Team Principal:
“We’re starting to get some consistency going throughout the team which is good. I don’t think it is the two-horse race everyone seems to believe, we are right there in it and there’s still a long way to go this season. The changes we made overnight were positive and it was good to see Chaz sticking with McLaughlin for a lot of today’s race. We tried something different with Cam today. If there was a safety car he would have had a fantastic result and in all honesty it was quite strange not to see one. It was good to see him passing cars and finish ahead of his qualifying position.”
1) Scott McLaughlin – DJR Team Penske
2) Chaz Mostert – Supercheap Auto Racing
3) Jamie Whincup – Triple Eight
4) Mark Winterbottom – The Bottle-O Racing Team
5) Will Davison – Tekno
12) Cameron Waters – Monster Energy Racing
13) Jason Bright – MEGA Racing
1) Fabian Coulthard – DJR Team Penske: 802
2) Shane van Gisbergen – Triple Eight: 783
3) Jamie Whincup – Triple Eight: 780
4) Scott McLaughlin – DJR Team Penske: 771
5) Chaz Mostert – Supercheap Auto Racing: 771
6) Mark Winterbottom – The Bottle-O Racing Team: 648
9) Cameron Waters – Monster Energy Racing: 544
20) Jason Bright – MEGA Racing: 351
1) DJR Team Penske: 1608
2) Triple Eight: 11563
3) Prodrive Racing Australia: 1227
