What the teams said: Race 9 Perth
Hear what the drivers had to say after Chaz Mostert took a breakthrough win in a clean Race 9 at Perth including why Feeney “felt slow” and Davison had a “disaster” plus what happened to Stanaway.
Walkinshaw Andretti United
Mostert produced a flawless drive, managing the race perfectly to take a first win since 2022.
“That was awesome, our first win for Ford as a team, that one feels good!” Mostert said.
Chaz Mostert celebrates his first win since Adelaide 2022. Image: RACE PROJECT
“It’s been a fantastic weekend so far, from the moment we rolled out yesterday I knew we had a good race car, and to be on pole was awesome as well.
“It’s just so good to reward everyone in the team with this one, for all the hard work, and to all the partners as well that have our backs, I just love this team.”
Ryan Wood had a coming of age moment, qualifying second before beating his more experienced teammate to hit the lead before falling just short of a maiden podium.
“Gutted to just miss out on the podium today, I gave it all I had in those closing laps, but to lead into turn 1, and race these guys up the front like that was really cool,” the rookie said.
“There’s a hell of a lot of positives to take from today, so I’m really pumped for tomorrow.”
Triple Eight Race Engineering
Broc Feeney “struggled” to fifth.
Championship leader Will Brown led the charge once again, making the most of four fresh tyres to make a late charge from fourth to second.
“I didn’t get the best start in the race due to a bit of wheel spin,” Brown said.
“We couldn’t pass the guys in front so I came in for my pit stop and changed four tyres and was able to jump Cam in the pits and chase Woody.
“After getting past Woody, I cooked my tyres a bit and I didn’t have anything for Chaz at the end. The Walkinshaw cars are very fast, so we have to look at ours tonight and hopefully try to win a race tomorrow.”
Broc Feeney had a consistent race, qualifying fifth and finishing fifth, 17s off the pace.
“In the race, I felt pretty slow to be honest,” an honest Feeney said.
“I thought I was trying to save tyres at the start but I just couldn’t go with the guys ahead of me and I really struggled.”
Tickford
Cameron Waters charged to third.
Cameron Waters pulled off a last-lap move to snatch third from rookie Ryan Wood with solid speed on full set of fresh tyres.
“I had such an awesome battle with Woody, he should be pretty proud of himself he fought pretty hard and clean,” Waters said.
“Had a lot of fun. There were a few key corners where I had enough over him and its good to be back on the podium.”
After a kerb strike proved costly in qualifying, Thomas Randle made good ground, rising seven spots to secure a third top 10 of the year.
“My fault in qualifying and should have been top five going into Q3 and made life more difficult than in needed to be,” Randle said.
“Nice to reward the guys with a top 10. Good fighting drive. Both Cam and I are struggling for a bit of front under rotation. You need that to get off the long corners.”
Matt Stone Racing
Nick Percat leads Davison, Hill and Payne into the basin.
Nick Percat made big ground early and held firm to complete a rise from 13th to seventh and collect more valuable points and sit fourth in the standings.
“It was a great race! The only annoying part is probably not executing qualifying enough,” Percat said.
“I had another good start and moved up a couple of positions in the first lap.
“I then settled in and tried to protect the right-side tyres as I hoped we would only put two tyres on the left side.
“I came out in clear air and from then just managed the car home.”
Cameron Hill bounced back from a tough Friday to secure a strong sixth on the grid, but battled in the race and a late moment saw him slip out of the top 10 in 11th.
“In the race I was running sixth and we made the decision to take four tyres which probably hurt us as we fell into some traffic and had to fight hard,” Hill said.
“I was running eighth and catching Nick who was in seventh and went for the move and I tried to give him too much room and made it too hard for myself which resulted in myself making a mistake.
“I am here to learn and to take my opportunities so hopefully we can replicate the speed tomorrow.”
Penrite Racing
Richie Stanaway crawls back after his pit straight crash.
Matt Payne scrapped hard to secure points from eighth. Admitted he was “struggling” on his way to qualifying eighth and also finished eighth.
There was heartbreak for Richie Stanaway, who had a misfiring engine, which led to an innocent Aaron Love tag the back of the Kiwi and fire the #26 head on into the outside wall on pit straight.
“Unfortunately, it was a tough day at the office for Car 26,” Stanaway said.
“We had a fuel pump failure on the way to the grid, and we weren’t able to rectify it.
“It misfired at a bad time while exiting the last corner with a car right behind me, turning me into the wall and damaging the car quite a bit.”
Dick Johnson Racing
Will Davison had a hairy moment rejoining the pits alongside Cameron Hill.
Anton De Pasquale was one of the biggest movers, climbing six spots to secure a hard-fought ninth and carry on a solid run of racing form.
However, it was a painful day for Will Davison. The veteran just missed out on the top 10 in qualifying and was plagued by an throttle issue which saw him finish eight laps down.
“It was a bloody disaster,” Davisons aid.
“We were tracking along okay but then we ran into a throttle issue.
“We were not miles away and it is so close in qualifying. Anton had a big swing and have potential.”
PremiAir Nulon Racing
PremiAir services James Golding in the lane.
Despite both cars making the top 10 in qualifying, neither Tim Slade and James Golding could finish in the 10.
Both drivers struggled for pace and tyre life with Slade in 12th and Golding 14th.
“We unlocked a bit of speed for quali and got off to a reasonable start in the race, but ultimately we didn’t have the speed or the tyre life, so we were just hanging in there pretty much,” Slade said.
“It was a bit of an up and down day once again. We had some highs coming out of qualifying with two cars in the top ten,” Golding said.
“The race didn’t quite go our way in the #31 car, we got into a couple of battles and came off second best early on and probably were on the back foot a bit from there.”
Brad Jones Racing
BJR’s Bryce Fullwood made some small ground in the race.
After a stunning win in Taupo, Andre Heimgartner remained the leader of the four BJR Camaros but did not reach the same heights.
Heimgartner started 15th and ran long in his first stint to gain two spots up to 13th.
All four cars gained spots with Bryce Fullwood (15th) Jaxon Evans (18th) and Macualey Jones (19th).
“The day was alright just didn’t qualify particularly well,” Heimgartner said.
“The car is really fast in the race had some good lap times and it was moving in the right direction.”
“We didn’t quite get it together, so we started 20th and we probably had potential to be 15 or so but unfortunately not to be,” Fullwood said.
“That’s on us for that one, but pretty positive race, we came up to 15th.”
“Qualifying was pretty average, didn’t really get the most out of the lap but it’s very tight,” Jones said.
“The race car is okay, it’s pretty hard to pass around this joint but I had some good characteristics.”
“I know it’s a short track but three tenths covering the whole field is pretty crazy,” Evans said.
“But feel like we’ve made a big step forward from yesterday’s practice, car speed wise and also myself and driving.
“I couldn’t really go much further back off the start, but I did have a shocker.”
Erebus Motorsport
Brodie Kostecki steers the new look #1 out of the pits.
Erebus had a nightmare start with Jack Le Brocq being towed to the pits and Brodie Kostecki going off at the opening corner.
Both cars recovered bit Le Brocq could only manage 20th due to the battery issue.
Kostecki went on a funky strategy, going 18 laps longer than any other car in the first stint but it did not pay off with the #1 a lap down in 22nd.
“It was not our finest day on the race track,” Erebus Team Principal Brad Tremain said.
“Early contact for Brodie sent him to the rear and we then chose to save tyres for tomorrow.
“A procedure error on our end meant Jack didn’t make the start.
“So lessons learnt from today and will apply it in the future and be better.”
Team 18
David Reynolds rides the T3 kerb.
Despite showing pace in practice, Team 18 struggled to make an impact.
Neither Mark Winterbottom or David Reynolds got near Q3 and followed each other home in 16th and 17th respectively.
“Really tough day, but not through lack of effort. We’re trying hard and the smallest changes on the car are doing big things and it’s all making sense, but we’re just not nailing the pace,” Winterbottom said.
“It was a day of kind of what it could have been. If I didn’t stuff it up in qualifying, I reckon we would have had a much better day,” Reynolds thought.
“I made a mistake in qualifying, buried us down to 19th when I think my car should have been in the top 10. That strategy was high risk but high reward and it just didn’t come off for us.
“In the race we had a lot of understeer in the car which chewed up the fronts then chewed up the rears so I’ve struggled a lot.”
2024 Perth Supersprint (AEST)
Friday, May 17
Practice 1: 1: C. Mostert 55.0930 2: N. Percat +0.1753 3: J. Courtney +0.1779
Saturday, May 18
Practice 2: 1: W. Brown 54.9036 2: C. Waters +0.0190 3: T. Randle +0.0739
Qualifying 1: C. Mostert 54.5628 2: R. Wood +0.1411 3: C. Waters +0.1759
Race 9: 17.45 (55 laps)
Sunday, May 19
Practice 3: 11.40
Qualifying: 14.00
Race 10: 17.45 (55 laps)
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