Mostert/Owen win Pirtek Enduro Cup

Chaz Mostert and Steve Owen have won the 2017 Pirtek Enduro Cup off the back of a seventh position finish in Race 22 this afternoon.

The Prodrive Racing Australia pair set up the triumph with a comeback win in Race 21 a day earlier at the Vodafone Gold Coast 600 a day and in the process became the first Ford winners of the cup.

Mostert/Owen finished 48 points clear of Fabian Coulthard and Tony D’Alberto, who had held top spot leaving the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000.

The #12 DJR Team Penske Falcon actually moved up a position to finish runners-up despite coming home only ninth in the final race of the Pirtek Enduro Cup.

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That was because Sandown 500 winners Cameron Waters and Richie Stanaway ended the race two laps off the pace in 21st, the latter having incurred steering damage when he hit Craig Lowndes while trying to pass for third on Lap 34.

Waters/Stanaway placed third in the Pirtek Enduro Cup, making for a Prodrive one-three.

“When you get to go home on Sunday night at the end of Gold Coast and have that cup, you obviously know you’ve had a pretty consistent Enduro Cup campaign as a team, so it’s awesome to get that,” Mostert told Speedcafe.com.

“We came close in 2014 with it when we won at Bathurst, come up second in then, but it’s awesome to have a cup this year already before the end of the year.”

Owen, who has been with Prodrive as an enduro co-driver since 2013, said that the trophy was a special reward for the hired guns of the three endurance events.

“For us it’s like the enduro drivers’ world championship, so it’s good,” he laughed.

“It’s a long campaign even for three races because they’re three long races.

“It’s sometimes a bit of a tortoise and hare type of approach and I’m definitely the tortoise but I keep bringing it back.

“It’s good to have won the cup.”

The day itself was a somewhat frustrating one for the duo, however, as they were unable to carry through their race-winning form from the day before.

Owen finished his stint in seventh position, having run sixth until being passed by team-mate Dean Canto on Lap 21.

Mostert emerged in eighth once the first round of pit stops fully played out and only regained the one position, during the final set of stops.

A need to save fuel, brought about by difficulties fully filling the car, saw him continue to circulate in seventh until the end of the race.

“I think we were just a bit too far back by the time we pitted,” explained Mostert.

“After the first ones (pit stops), we fell back down the order.

“There were snippets of great pace out there at times during stints, (but) it wasn’t across the whole stint.

“Towards the end we had another issue going on with some pit stop stuff, so just didn’t quite have the pace towards the end.”

Meanwhile, for the fourth time in the five-year history of the Pirtek Enduro Cup, there were four different race winning cars.

Pirtek Enduro Cup: 2017 results

1	55	Chaz Mostert/Steve Owen	660
2	12	Fabian Coulthard/Tony D’Alberto	612
3	6	Cameron Waters/Richie Stanaway	594
4	97	Shane van Gisbergen/Matthew Campbell	591
5	88	Jamie Whincup/Paul Dumbrell	534
6	888	Craig Lowndes/Steven Richards	504
7	02	Scott Pye/Warren Luff	498
8	17	Scott McLaughlin/Alexandre Premat	495
9	23	Michael Caruso/Dean Fiore	465
10	9	David Reynolds/Luke Youlden	462
11	99	Dale Wood/Chris Pither	462
12	33	Garth Tander/James Golding	462
13	56	Jason Bright/Garry Jacobson	417
14	22	James Courtney/Jack Perkins	417
15	15	Rick Kelly/David Wall	408
16	7	Todd Kelly/Jack Le Brocq	375
17	19	Will Davison/Jonathon Webb	372
18	5	Mark Winterbottom/Dean Canto	369
19	14	Tim Slade/Andre Heimgartner	333
20	34	James Moffat/Richard Muscat	291
21	18	Lee Holdsworth/Karl Reindler	270
22	21	Tim Blanchard/Todd Hazelwood	243
23	78	Simona De Silvestro/David Russell	198
24	8	Nick Percat/Macauley Jones	198
25	62	Alex Rullo/Alex Davison	156
26	3	Aaren Russell/Taz Douglas	108
27	75	Tim Slade/Ash Walsh	0

Pirtek Enduro Cup: 2017 race winners

Sandown 500	Cameron Waters/Richie Stanaway	Prodrive Racing Australia
Bathurst 1000	David Reynolds/Luke Youlden	Erebus Motorsport
Gold Coast Saturday	Chaz Mostert/Steve Owen	Prodrive Racing Australia
Gold Coast Sunday	Scott McLaughlin/Alexandre Premat	DJR Team Penske

Previous Pirtek Enduro Cup winners

2013	Craig Lowndes/Warren Luff	Triple Eight Race Engineering
2014	Jamie Whincup/Paul Dumbrell	Triple Eight Race Engineering
2015	Garth Tander/Warren Luff	Walkinshaw Racing
2016	Shane van Gisbergen/Alexandre Premat	Triple Eight Race Engineering