FOR Chaz Mostert, the chance to race at the legendary Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps all started during drivers’ briefing at the 2023 Bathurst 12 Hour.
Mostert will steer a SunEnergy1 Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 at this weekend’s 24 Hours of Spa, joining forces with Nicky Catsburg, Martin Konrad and team owner Kenny Habul in a Pro-Am entry.
Habul is the Mount Panorama resident who has now conquered the past two editions of the once-around-the-clock Bathurst enduro, and it was at this year’s edition that he began chatting with Mostert about Spa.
“It was pretty crazy, to be honest,” Mostert told V8 Sleuth.
“I was trying to set something up for this year at the 12 Hour, actually trying to find a Pro car and be involved with a manufacturer and Kenny got wind of that through a certain manufacturer link that maybe I was looking at Spa.
“He reached out basically at the 12 Hour and said, ‘maybe have a talk to me after the weekend’.
“It was actually at drivers’ briefing which was kind of cool.
“I was like, ‘yeah I’ll be calling you first thing Monday’.”
Mostert did just that, and the wheels were in motion.
The 31-year-old’s former allegiance with BMW took him to various racing tracks around the world including Macau and Daytona, but his first outing at Spa only came last month during pre-event testing.
“It’s a massive tick box,” he said of Spa and its 24-hour.
“It’s been one definitely the last three years that I’ve really thought I’d love to race there and go do that event; the other one is probably Le Mans.
“Getting a result there is obviously the secondary thing, you always go there to compete and you want to do well but just to say that I’ve been there and raced, you talk about grandchildren one day and saying ‘old pops here got overseas and did some racing’.”
He’s expecting a “super hectic” experience.
“There’s 75 cars entered for all GT3s around a 7km track so if you work that out, there’s a car every less than 100m so it is going to be very, very hectic,” Mostert added.
“But it’s exciting and I have got an awesome driver line-up.
“I’m so grateful that Kenny has given me the opportunity to come race with him. Obviously he has got an amazing record at Bathurst; Spa is the one he wants to try to get in Pro-Am.”
Fellow Supercars race winner Anton De Pasquale will also contest the event, sharing a Porsche 911 GT3 R with Stephen Grove, Brenton Grove and Earl Bamber in the Bronze class.
Meanwhile, this weekend in Chicago, Shane van Gisbergen will be making his NASCAR Cup Series debut.
