Holdsworth's mission to keep Mostert on championship path
Lee Holdsworth keen to push Chaz Mostert to championship
Mostert and Holdsworth won 2021 Great Race, fourth last year
Mostert just 81 points behind championship leader Will Brown
Lee Holdsworth wants to help Chaz Mostert achieve his championship dream as the star combination readies for one of the most crucial enduro seasons in recent memory.
Mostert and Holdsworth will reunite for the Penrite Oil Sandown 500 next weekend, before returning to Mount Panorama next month hoping to replicate their 2021 victory.
The Mostert/Holdsworth pairing is one of the favourites for both races, with the WAU duo leading a Supercars.com poll at the time of publication.
Mostert is just 81 points behind leader and Triple Eight rival Will Brown heading to Sandown. It’s the closest Mostert has been to the series lead before the enduros, bettering his 174-point deficit from 2015.
It’s also the closest the top two have been leading to the enduros since 2018; that year, the driver in second managed to take out the championship.
This year, Holdsworth is hopeful his mate can take it out, and knows he has a key role to play.
"Obviously Chaz is in a position where he can definitely fight for this championship, and he is at the moment and it's fantastic to see,” Holdsworth told Supercars.com.
"And hopefully I can help him out with that. I feel like the car and the team has all the ingredients to win this championship this year.
"Obviously the last three or four rounds have been a really good turnaround for the team.
“They've found consistency and found even more speed in the car, good tyre life, all the rest of it, which is what you need for Sandown, and then obviously a really strong car for Bathurst.
"I'm just stoked that I'm in maybe the best team in pit lane at the moment, and giving, giving myself and Chaz the best shot of winning these two races.”
In two starts together at the Mountain, Mostert and Holdsworth have combined for finishes of first and fourth. The two drivers have formed a strong bond, something Holdsworth believes helps both drivers extract performance.
"I think you get the best the best out of each other when you're having fun and we enjoy ourselves,” said Holdsworth, speaking at Tuesday's pre-enduro test day.
"We muck around, but once the helmet goes on, we take it pretty seriously. We both like the same car; the way the car handles, the way it drives. All the characteristics of the car, we want the same. So that goes a long way.
"So every time I'm out there, every time he's out there, all the feedback is the same and we're working towards the same goal.”
Mostert added: “I've got the combination of Holdsy again this year, which is fantastic.
"It's kind of our grand final-esque couple of rounds coming up, but then you've still got the championship to run for, for the whole year as well.
“We'll just see how we go. Lee’s obviously a fantastic coey, what we did a couple years ago at Bathurst was pretty special.”
