Mostert Gets Late Call-Up for Phillip Island Season Opener

Chaz Mostert will make a one-off appearance in the opening round of the Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS at Phillip Island this weekend.

The reigning Bathurst 1000 and Supercheap Auto TCR Australia Series champion, plus the current Supercars Championship leader has been drafted into Liam Talbot’s latest-generation Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II for the Victorian event, replacing Talbot’s regular co-driver Fraser Ross.

Mostert is no stranger to Audi GT3 equipment, having raced with Tony Bates in his R8 example in three of the four rounds last year.

“I didn’t plan on doing anything other than Supercars this year, but I’m definitely happy to help Liam out for the Phillip Island,” said Mostert.

“Liam and I actually have a mutual friend Ben Hennock from Wash It Australia. He supports both of us, and my name was thrown into the ring and I was keen to help them out when Fraser got caught up and was unavailable.

“I haven’t driven the new [Evo II] package, and I can only rock up just before qualifying, so I’ll be jumping into the deep end, so I’ll try and get into the swing of it as quickly as I can.

“Like any race car driver, we are there to compete and we want to be on the top step. I have some experience with the Audi from last year, but Liam is very capable driver and we’ll be hoping to put his car as far up the order as we can.

“The competition in GT is very stiff. There’s lots of good cars, teams and drivers there. It should be a great weekend.”

Talbot is coming off some great form in his Audi too, winning the final race of last year’s title with Ross at Mount Panorama.

The late deal has been struck thanks to a mutual sponsor of Talbot and Mostert – Wash It Australia – who has helped link the pair up to form what will be one of the strongest combinations in the field.

More than 20 cars have entered for the opening round of season, including the likes of Triple Eight’s Shane van Gisbergen and Prince Jefri, Supercars star David Reynolds and Tony Bates in an Audi, Christopher Mies with reigning champion Yasser Shahin, as well as the Lamborghini for TCR Australia star Tony D’Alberto with Adrian Dietz.

The full GT entry list will be revealed on Friday.