Munruben raised V8 supercar driver Chaz Mostert is eyeing off a podium finish in front of family and friends at next weekend’s Ipswich Supersprint event.
The 2014 Bathurst winner who now lives on the Gold Coast, said each of the three Queensland events during the V8 racing season hold extra significance for him but added the Ipswich leg is the most special, due to it’s close proximity to Munruben.
“I guess for me anytime I get to race in Queensland is a bit of a home race, I live on the Gold Coast now, but obviously growing up in Munruben, you just go through the back of the forest there and your out at Ipswich, I’m pretty lucky that I get a lot of family and friends to come out and support me on that race weekend, it’s definitely a home race,” he said.
“Anytime I race in Queensland, even going up to Townsville, Queenslanders have such a unique personality, they’re generally all friendly and they come out when the sun’s out.
“QR (Queensland Raceway) is up next so that’s our main focus and I’ll probably get some more family and friends come to that round because it is closer to where I grew up, and its a bit more easily accessible to them than the Gold Coast but saying that I’m lucky that every Queensland round I generally have a lot of friends and family come so I’m just looking forward to another Queensland event.”
Mostert said the Ipswich track makes for some of the most exciting racing in the V8 season.
“The track is probably one of the more simpler layouts in our series, but it actually creates some of the best racing, you can be side by side with a car not for only three quarters of a lap, you can be take the whole lap side by side, so it becomes a bit if a chess game it comes down to race craft and it throws a big spanner in the mix that track,” he said.
“I’m looking forward to racing there, its a good time to have the race meeting there right in the middle of the series and it would be good to have a good result there in front of family and friends and try to build some momentum in this second last sprint round before the enduros.”
The Prodrive Racing team driver is currently sitting in fifth in the championship standings on 1257 points, 351 points behind series leader Scott McLaughlin but the former Beaudesert High School student said his focus for the rest of the year would be making as many podiums as possible.
“I’m not really trying to focus too much on the championship side of things, my main priority is to try and get as much as we can out of the car and try to get as many podiums and champagnes as we can,” he said.
“If we can possibly do that anything is possible, but in saying that, we are probably a little further away than what would we would like after the last couple of rounds; but still this year has been one of the better starts to any year I’ve had since coming into the championship.
“It’s exciting to have a good start like that, and being fifth in the championship is great as well, but in syaing that week in week out, we want to be making sure we can get on the podium every round and try and get champagne and if we have good car speed and the drivers are doing a good job anything can happen.
“The number one guy who sums it up really good in our series is Jamie Whincup, if you’ve got car pace and you’re getting podiums and champagnes everything else will look after itself, I just want to try my hardest to get back up on that step, we missed it the last couple of rounds.
“The first few rounds of the year we were up there, so we’ve just got to try and get back up there and get some momentum going and see what happens with everything else.”
the Ipswich Supersprint round is held at Queensland Raceway at Willowbank from July 28 to July 30.