TEN years ago, a young Chaz Mostert was mounting quite the championship challenge until a horrific Bathurst crash brought his season to an abrupt halt.

Momentum had swung Mostert’s way to set up a potential grandstand finish; instead fans were left with a great ‘what if’ as the path cleared for Mark Winterbottom to close out the title.

Since returning at the start of the following season, Mostert has continued to be a perennial frontrunner.

In each of the past six seasons he has finished between third and fifth in the end-of-year championship standings, with the overall season crown ever elusive.

But with Supercars’ new finals series comes renewed hope.

After sweeping the Gold Coast 500, the Walkinshaw Andretti United ace heads to the Sandown semi-finals as the second seed.

Getting through Sandown won’t be easy given it’s proven a happy hunting ground for Chevrolet, but if he can book one of the four spots for Adelaide… watch out.

“Sandown is completely different again – similar strengths and weaknesses but a completely different surface,” said Mostert.

“So pretty interested to go there and see how we are.

“I just want to try to get to Adelaide. We had a really fast car in Adelaide last year as well, maybe not as fast as (Broc Feeney), but I feel like we have learnt a lot in 12 months and if we can give ourselves a shot there, we’ll see what we can do.”

Chaz Mostert. Pic: Supplied/Kass Brumley

Asked the inevitable question about if this is his best chance yet, Mostert replied: “I think every year I come into this I say it’s my best chance, but it’s starting to become a bit of a broken record.

“It’s so competitive, there’s been so many great drivers I’ve versed over the years here and every single one of them has deserved the championship.

“Before this year it has been a consistent championship, the guys that have put together the amount of race wins like Broc this year has generally won it, so if there’s a format that might suit me, it’s probably this new one.

“So yeah, I would say it probably is my best chance going forward.”

WAU is the only team with one semi-finalist at Sandown, following Ryan Wood’s elimination on the Gold Coast.

Making up the remainder of the semi-finals seven are both drivers from Triple Eight, Grove Racing and Tickford Racing.