Coming Back: FPR will run Chaz Mostert in the final two rounds of the Fujitsu Series at Sandown and Sydney.
More news
6:06 PM Tue 8 November, 2011
Source: BigPond Sport
FORD Performance Racing will join Triple Eight Race Engineering and Walkinshaw Racing in the Fujitsu V8 Supercars Series for the remainder of the 2011 season.
The Melbourne-based squad will run 2010 Australian Formula Ford Champion Chaz Mostert in the final two rounds at Sandown and Sydney Olympic Park, rejoining the series it has previously competed in.
The 19-year-old is a hot favourite to win the Mike Kable Young Gun Award for best first-year V8 Supercar driver and is being evaluated by FPR with a view to potentially entering a car in next year’s Fujitsu Series full-time.
“I am really ecstatic to be working with FPR,” said Mostert, who will carry the #56 on one of the team’s FG Falcons at Sandown.
“I have dreamed about driving for the factory Ford team since I started racing so to be part of it, even for a couple of races, is just amazing.
“I’ve grown up liking Fords, won the Formula Ford series and have raced a Falcon all year so to now be in a factory-prepared car is great. My job is to learn as much as I can and bring the car home straight.
“I also want to thank Miles Racing as without their efforts I would not be in the position I find myself in. My plan now is to make FPR proud and secure a seat with them next year.”
Mostert currently sits seventh in the Fujitsu Series after driving so far this year for Miles Racing in an older model BF Falcon.
His Miles Falcon will be taken over at Sandown by FPR endurance pilot Luke Youlden.
FPR Team Principal Tim Edwards says Mostert’s rapid progression from karts to open-wheelers and more recently to V8 Supercars has been impressive and warrants a closer look.
“Chaz’s record in the junior ranks is impressive and to this point in his career he has attained results similar to those achieved by a young Mark Winterbottom, so he certainly has all the right foundations for a career in V8 Supercars,” Edwards said.
“We always watch the Fujitsu Series races to see what talent is emerging and in his first season Chaz has shown glimpses of brilliance, especially in the wet, against much more experienced opposition.
“By no means do we have anything locked away beyond these last two races of the year but we have a spare car so we thought it was the ideal opportunity to see up close what Chaz can do.
“We are doing so with a view to a long-term relationship so now he just has to make the most of the chance we’ve presented him with.”
FPR last competed in the Fujitsu Series last year, preparing and running the Norton 360 Falcon for Jim Morton under the Ford Rising Stars Racing banner.
David Paterson, who has engineered Paul Dumbrell’s Bottle-O car for the last two seasons at FPR, will engineer Mostert - James Small will engineer Dumbrell for the remainder of the 2011 season.
