CHAZ Mostert has offered fascinating insight into how he views his long-term Supercars future.

It comes as he prepares to celebrate the 400th championship race of his career this weekend in Darwin, making him the 22nd driver to reach that figure.

Given he’s still just 34 years of age, there’s every chance Mostert could end up with seriously prolific tallies pending whether he drives on full-time into his 40s.

Per a fresh multi-year contract extension inked in April, the two-time Great Race winner is thought to be under lock and key until at least the end of 2028.

So, what does the man himself have to say?

“It’s one of those ones where I suppose when you’re 34 and you have other 34-year-old drivers in the category, you probably don’t really think so much about where the end is because you generally still have got four or five other drivers that are older than you,” Mostert told V8 Sleuth.

“But the category has taken a real weird left step at the moment.

“Saying you’re the second-oldest driver on the grid (i.e. only behind David Reynolds) is a bit daunting.

“The human element, you start to think, ‘second-oldest on the grid, it must mean your time is nearly up’. In saying that, I’m in this small group where quite a few drivers are riding those early 30s and unfortunately I’m on the wrong end of that.

“To answer your question, do you think about stuff? Yes, for sure. You’re not human unless you do think about how long you want your career to go for.

“My thing is I’ll try to do it as long as I can, as long as I’m competitive and feel like I can win races and feel like I’ve got something to offer a team.

“And then the second part of that is you’re also thinking about where you are in the category side of things, like are you still enjoying driving Supercars? Is this still a generation of cars that you like driving? Do you put emphasis on that?

Pic: Ross Gibb

“You probably read a lot in the media these days about guys like (Max) Verstappen and (Fernando) Alonso being unhappy with the formula that they’re racing.

“We are in a really different generation of car at the moment. If I was to sit in front of you and say it’s my favourite generation of Supercar, you’d probably catch me lying.

“The racing is probably the best it has ever been and the product and the entertainment, but purely driving the car itself, there’s nothing better than having one of those old Gen2 cars going around Bathurst and doing a low 2m03s and feeling the car squirm with a bit more aero – and no doubt that’s why we still love jumping in a GT3 car and pushing some of those high speeds that we do across the Mountain.

“It’s just a different philosophy. I would say the competitiveness side is the thing I really love about Supercars and how tight it is, but purely driving the car it can be a little bit confusing sometimes.

“So where the end is, it depends how many years the cars stay like that, what’s the next generation of car, all those things will really change the factor of how long you strive to keep going.”

Mostert is coming off a “much-needed” win in Tasmania, his first in Toyota Supra machinery.

Pic: Walkinshaw TWG Racing

Darwin has been an odd place for him since the turn of the decade; he won there in 2021 and ’22 (his and his team’s final years with Holden) before severely struggling for qualifying performance in Gen3 Mustangs.

“I’ve got such good memories there, but the last few years in Gen3 and Ford were quite difficult,” said Mostert.

“It’s been one end of the spectrum where I have qualified quite poorly but had amazing race pace. It’s really hard to draw a parallel between.

“That’s just kind of the category we’re in at the moment, that’s where the Gen3 cars are: getting the optimised grip for one lap is such a unique thing for these cars compared to being able to make the car last over a bunch of laps.”

Supercars will race at Hidden Valley on Friday, with Mostert’s 400th due to be reached the following afternoon.