HE has spent much of his 2019 campaign thus far trying "beat that one guy", but Chaz Mostert believes the form guide can not be relied upon when it comes to the Bathurst 1000.
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And given he came from the rear of the grid to win the Great Race in 2014, it is a belief which is well justified.
"With Bathurst, I don't think there's any form guide, sometimes the best pony you can back doesn't always cross the line first," he said.
"We'll see how it pans out, it's Bathurst, that's what makes it so special. It's a long day and there's a lot of things that go wrong and sometimes only one thing that goes right."
The Tickford Racing star arrived at Bathurst this week sitting third in the drivers' championship, with Red Bull's Shane van Gisbergen and defending champion Scott McLaughlin the only two ahead of him.
McLaughlin, who like Mostert drives a Ford Mustang, has led the championship from the opening race of 2019. He has notched up 17 wins and a pair of runner-up finishes to hold a 598-point lead.
In contrast Mostert has one win, five second placings and six thirds across the 24 races thus far.
Naturally Mostert would have liked more of his podium appearances to have been as a race winner, but rather than being frustrated, getting close has acted as a motivator for him.
"This year it's pretty much the story of our year that we've just always been coming up a little bit short. Look we're proud of what we've achieved this year, but wins is what every driver in the category goes for and one guy has sort of dominated that this year," he said.
"That just proves we've got to keep lifting, teams have got to keep lifting and drivers have got to keep lifting to try and beat that one guy.
READ MORE: Mostert is expecting a gung-ho Great Race
"It's not frustrating because you can only put in as much effort as there is, sometimes you come up short.
"That's been the whole gig, been the whole push around this year trying to make our platform better and as a driver, trying to work on my craft and keep trying to extract more and more speed and get more wins.
"Sometimes it doesn't happen, but you've just got to pick yourself up and keep trying."
Trying hard to win is exactly what Mostert, who will share his #55 Mustang with James Moffat, will be doing at Mount Panorama.
He said he will put his championship standing out of his mind and make conquering the 161-lap epic his sole focus, but Mostert knows he will not be alone in that approach.
He knows the prestige of winning the Peter Brock Trophy will have every driver in the field pushing the limits.
"I think everybody in the championship, this year going to Bathurst will just be focused on that one event," he said.
"The championship has blown out of proportion and a lot of people really only remember who won the championship, not who came second or third. So it's going to be a sprint race this year and I'm pretty excited for it, that's why Bathurst is so cool.
"There are a lot of combinations going into this race that are just solely focused on giving it their all.
"You've always got the mentality of high hopes of having a good showing, but at the end of the day there's one combination which has had an awesome week, an awesome race, and the other 25 are scratching their heads going 'I've now got to wait another 12 months'."