Supercars 2022: Chaz Mostert opens up on Walkinshaw Andretti United’s shock switch to Ford for Gen3 era ahead of round at Winton
Chaz Mostert has opened up on Walkinshaw Andretti United’s shock defection to Ford for the start of Supercars Gen3 era with a parting message for Holden fans.
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Dual Bathurst 1000 champion Chaz Mostert has vowed to do all he can to help Walkinshaw Andretti United finish on a high with Holden this year ahead of the team’s shock switch – and his homecoming – to Ford from 2023.
Opening up on the long-time Holden squad’s bombshell defection to Ford for the start of the Gen3 era in Supercars next year, Mostert said it was a “huge” win for the team to secure factory support again.
The former factory Holden Racing Team announced earlier this month it had chosen to field Ford Mustangs instead of the General Motors’ Chevrolet Camaro for Gen3 in one of the most significant manufacturer shifts in Supercars history.
WAU will continue to campaign in a ZB Commodore until the end of this year when the Holdens will line up on the grid for the last time.
Mostert, who started his Supercars career in a Ford, hoped the switch was the start of an exciting new era for the team.
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But the defending Bathurst champion said the squad still had a “massive job” this year to ensure it farewelled the Commodore in style for its diehard Holden fans.
“It’s super exciting for the team going into the Gen3 era and getting manufacturer support again, it’s something the team has lacked for a couple of years now,” Mostert said ahead of this weekend’s Supercars round at Winton.
“Definitely being the old Holden homologation team, the old famous HRT team, to not have that the last couple of years you could see the team was just lacking something a little bit so for us to get factory backing next year is huge.
“It’s a little bit different for the team obviously representing a different brand in Supercars than what it has been for a long time, but seeing all the news come out and a lot of feedback from fans, I am really overwhelmed with the support for the team changing into next year.
“So I think it is really cool and obviously for myself to go back to Ford where I spent most of my career, it’s a little bit of a homecoming as well.
“But also saying that, there is still such a massive job for us to do this year, the team really wants to finish on a high with Holden, its last year in the sport.
“So we’ll see what we can do for the rest of the year.”
Mostert started his Supercars career in a Falcon when he made his debut in the Supercars championship for Dick Johnson Racing in 2013 and spent the next six years in a Ford at Tickford Racing before his move to WAU.
He claimed his second Bathurst 1000 crown last year in his second season with the Holden squad, following his win in a Falcon at Mount Panorama in 2014.
“I guess for me coming back to Ford it is quite cool to do a bit of a full-circle, back to where I got my first start in Supercars,” Mostert said.
“I have achieved some stuff with Ford, achieved some stuff with Holden and never won a championship and hopefully the team going to Ford and getting that manufacturer support can just give us that little edge to keep moving forward and keep building consistency.
“But there is still so long to go in this year and we’re focusing on getting every best result that we can out of the ZB Commodore.”
While the team had been bracing for some fallout from its rusted-on Holden fans over the shock switch, Mostert said he has been pleasantly surprised by the reaction.
“We are actually quite surprised with the amount of positivity about the change. It’s really cool to see,” Mostert said.
“A lot of the older generation of fans in the sport, they are very red or blue.
“But over the years I have found a lot of people have been softening to follow drivers more or certain teams, no matter what manufacturer, so it’s really cool to see that change in our sport.
“I was just really shocked – in a good way – of the more positivity coming from it.”
Mostert will be hoping for a turnaround in fortunes on-track for this weekend’s racing at Winton after a horror weekend in Perth last round.
After claiming two wins in the previous round at Albert Park, Mostert finished 22nd, 12th and 19th in the three races at in the west.
He slipped from fourth to fifth in the championship and now trails leader Shane van Gisbergen by 342 points.
“The last memories of a race for us in Supercars are not any good, so this is an opportunity to control- alt-delete those out of the mind,” Mostert said.
“It was tough not just for myself but for the whole team. They tried everything to turn the weekend around and so the result was not from lack of trying, that’s for sure.
“Obviously Perth was so bad for us that we lost a lot of ground in the championship … I presume it’s a pretty big deficit to make up, we will try our hardest.
“We just want to bounce back and go after trophies again. “
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Originally published as Supercars 2022: Chaz Mostert opens up on Walkinshaw Andretti United’s shock switch to Ford for Gen3 era ahead of round at Winton
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