Chaz eyes strong start in ‘brutal’ Bathurst

BATHURST 1000 winner Chaz Mostert predicts next week’s race at Mt Panorama will be “super brutal” as the event is held for the first time in December, but is upbeat about his team’s prospects.

After four rounds of racing at Sydney Motorsport Park, the Great Race will be held as the season-finale on December 5 after the endurance classic was pushed back in an enforced calendar reshuffle.

November is the latest, traditionally held in October, it has previously been held.

Following the big wet in Sydney last Sunday, which forced the final race of the round to be cancelled, Mostert expects the conditions at Bathurst to be challenging

“It is obviously a fantastic race every year, it’s super hard, and this year it is going to be super brutal being at the time that it is,” Mostert said.

“It is going to be a really tough December race.

“Lucky I have got the big guns here with (co-driver) Lee (Holdsworth). He is going to do all the heavy lifting for me and just give me a car hopefully out in the lead, and I will just do my job.”

Mostert, who won the Bathurst 1000 in 2014 with Paul Morris, will team with Holdsworth for the first time in a strong pairing that will be aiming to take down hot favourites Shane van Gisbergen and Garth Tander.

They will be aiming to win Walkinshaw Andretti United’s first Bathurst crown since Tander and Nick Percat in 2011 for the then Holden Racing Team.

Mostert, third in last year’s race, said Holdsworth’s immediate pace in testing augured well for the race.

“You have seen the last couple of years it has been an absolute sprint race, you have got to have both drivers right on the pace. So we are obviously very lucky to get Lee,” he said.

“The best thing was seeing Lee’s pace straight out of the gate at SMP. We had our test day here after three rounds of me racing here. He was right on the money out of the gate. So we actually kicked him back out of the car and focused on making the car quicker.”