It’d sound just a little unusual to counsel that one of many winners from the Supercars races at Albert Park was Cameron Waters.
In any case, his clear sweep at Sydney Motorsport Park final month marked Waters as the driving force to beat to the championship. Three poles, three wins and three quickest laps within the three races is an achievement hardly ever seen in a collection like Supercars, the place the vehicles are very related technically.
Added to that, the three races that have been accomplished on the Australian Grand Prix venue have been gained by three totally different drivers, and never one in all them was Waters. So the useful factors lead the Tickford Ford Mustang driver carried into the Melbourne evaporated within the warmth and he now sits seven factors in arrears of the brand new factors chief and defending Supercars Champion, Triple Eight’s Will Brown.
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Solely 5 drivers scored extra factors than Waters did, and his outcomes have been sixth, sixth and eighth within the three races. Alternatively Brown completed these races second, third and first. However contemplating how Waters did what he did, it was positively a optimistic weekend.
Waters needed to scratch and struggle his means ahead in two of these races, after qualifying twenty second and nineteenth in races one and three, whereas Brown began from second in each these races.
Then the race that may have tipped the scales in Waters’s favour on Sunday was deserted because of the inclement Melbourne climate; he would have began from fifth whereas Brown, after a qualifying catastrophe after which a three-place grid penalty for a driving infraction, was buried again in twenty second on the grid. When the officers took the choice to not begin the race, Brown’s smile would have been vast, significantly since at that exact second, Melbourne’s fickle Sunday climate was not truly that horrible…
It could be harsh to counsel that Brown was fortunate to carry on to his factors lead, however on this event, fortune leaned his means.
Will Brown, Triple Eight Race Engineering Chevrolet Camaro ZL1
Picture by: Edge Photographics
These two aside, there was a lot to notice on the grand prix circuit. Seven qualifying periods into an extended season, solely two drivers have scored pole positions, the three Waters grabbed in Sydney trumped by Broc Feeney’s 4 in Melbourne. The Triple Eight teen actually is one thing particular across the sweeping grand prix observe; he has 10 profession Supercars pole positions and eight of them have come at Albert Park.
Likewise, Matt Stone Racing continued its infatuation with the observe. Final 12 months Nick Percat scored the crew a win in his Chevrolet Camaro; this time round he was on the rostrum twice, a statistic that will have seemed exceptional if not for the truth that his second place on Friday got here behind his MSR team-mate Cam Hill.
The Canberra driver’s breakthrough victory seemed totally composed, and Percat might have gained for the crew once more on Saturday had his energy steering not light then surrendered within the stifling Melbourne warmth. Percat did what he might to wrestle the automobile to 3rd place, utilizing his knees to leverage the ultra-heavy steering over the ultimate lap. He would have been grateful for 2 issues; that two of the final three corners are right-handers so he might deploy his left knee to the steering wheel, and that his 6’3” top allowed him to try this.
Brodie Kostecki was the very best of the remainder (and of the Mustang drivers) for Dick Johnson Racing. No matter it’s about Albert Park, it simply doesn’t go well with a Ford. The final 15 Supercars races across the lakeside circuit have been gained by both Holdens or Chevrolets; to search out the final Ford winner, you must go all the best way again to 2019, when Scott McLaughlin gained for what was then DJR Workforce Penske forward of Tickford Racing’s Chaz Mostert.
Because the vehicles and gear sail the Tasman Sea to New Zealand, the bitumen patchwork of Taupo Motorsport Park awaits. Waters and Brown will probably be trying ahead to a way more simple weekend, and everyone seems to be hopeful of cool however superb climate.
On this article
Phil Branagan
Supercars
Cameron Waters
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