TOWNSVILLE, Australia - Cam Waters (No. 6 Monster Energy Ford Mustang) has backed up his Saturday win at the Townsville SuperSprint with another win on Sunday afternoon in Race 19 on the streets of Townsville. It is Waters’ fifth career win and third of 2021, and the 77th in the history of Tickford Racing. Combined with an 11th place finish in Race 18 earlier on Sunday, Waters has now climbed to third in the Supercars drivers’ championship after seven rounds.

The race-defining move for Waters came on Lap 18 when the Safety Car was deployed for a stricken car on track. Waters, who had started on pole but was running second, stayed out on track while the leader pitted, turning another lap before pitting on Lap 19, and emerging as the leader of the race. When the race restarted on Lap 24, Waters resisted significant pressure from his rivals as he held on to take his second race win in as many days in Townsville.

Waters was followed home by James Courtney, who finished seventh in Race 19, his eighth top 10 finish in the last 10 races. Preceded by a frustrating 16th in Race 18, Courtney retains ninth in the drivers’ championship. The team pairing of Waters and Courtney also holds third in the teams’ championship as the 2021 season enters its second half.

Jack Le Brocq (No. 5 Truck Assist Ford Mustang) showed promising race pace again on Sunday in Townsville, but saw his race efforts hampered by being stuck in traffic following challenges in qualifying on Sunday morning. After starts of 23rd and 16th respectively, Le Brocq moved up for finishes of 18th and 13th on Sunday, but leaves the weekend frustrated overall.

With the Sydney SuperNight postponed due to a recent outbreak of COVID-19, another venue is set to host the Supercars Championship on the August 21-22 weekend. That venue will be confirmed in due course.

DRIVERS’ VIEW
No. 5 Truck Assist Ford Mustang
Jack Le Brocq
Race 18 Quali: 1m14.24s, 23rd
Race 19 Quali: 1m13.36s, 16th
Race 18 Finish: 18th
Race 19 Finish: 13th
“Our weekend wasn’t great, to be honest. It’s awesome for Cam and the guys next door to get a couple wins, massive credit to those guys, they did an awesome job. Our side of the garage, we just didn’t have the car speed. As a team we took a fair swing at a new direction with car set up, and it didn’t really click for me this weekend. But we’ll live and learn, have a look at things and see what we can improve on, and look to go better at the next one.”

No. 6 Monster Energy Ford Mustang
Cam Waters
Race 18 Quali: 1m13.60s, 6th
Race 19 Quali: 1m12.81s, 1st
Race 18 Finish: 11th
Race 19 Finish: 1st
“It’s pretty nice, I had an awesome battle with Shane (van Gisbergen), and we were attacking all race. An absolutely awesome afternoon, we de-tuned (the car) this morning, then tuned it back up for the last race. It wasn’t easy (to hold off van Gisbergen), but I just placed the car in all the right spots and just hoped that he would burn his tyres up in the process. I was just counting down the laps until Will (Davison) got in on the action as well, and from that point on I probably did enough to cook his tyres and we could stay in front.”

On Lap 18 Safety Car exchange:
“I obviously saw Macauley’s (Jones) car stopped, and the Safety Car boards pretty well came out at pit entry. Shane decided to go in, I hadn’t heard anything so I just decided to press on. Obviously I got past the Safety Car and attacked on that in-lap, and that was probably what gave me the lead. Just a bit of luck, I suppose, to stay out and push on that extra lap.”

No. 44 Boost Mobile Ford Mustang
James Courtney
Race 18 Quali: 1m14.09s, 21st
Race 19 Quali: 1m13.16s, 9th
Race 18 Finish: 16th
Race 19 Finish: 7th
“This morning was pretty crazy. We had a drama in that first qualifying session, so we started way back, and starting back there is just madness so I just held back a little and managed to come through to 16th. Then in the second race we just ran our race, and even though we pitted pretty early we picked off some spots later in the race and notched up another nice top 10. Great for Cam getting that awesome result today, and for us as a team to come back and have a good weekend here is a really nice confidence boost all around.”

Tim Edwards, Team Principal
“The first race today was pretty sub-par for us, which was pretty unfortunate, but to turn it around again for this afternoon’s race was just fantastic. We’ve been fortunate to have had Cam in our team for seven years now, and that race this afternoon was certainly one of his best, if not the best drive he’s had. We probably got a little lucky staying out and just beating the Safety Car, but Cam drove a great in-lap, the crew gave him a good stop, and we got track position. We were all holding our breath in the garage those last 16 laps, but Cam drove brilliantly to keep Shane (van Gisbergen) behind. He earned every bit of that one, and it’s a great way to end a grind of a couple weeks up here.”

DUNLOP SUPER2 SERIES
Along with Waters’ win in the main game, Tickford Racing Dunlop Super2 Series driver Zak Best (No. 78 Best Leisure Industries Ford Falcon FG X) scored his first career pole and race win on Sunday at the Townsville SuperSprint. Finishing second for the Townsville round overall, Best also retains second in the Super2 drivers’ standings through three events.

The Dunlop Super2 Series’ next scheduled event is at the Bathurst 1000 in October, but could factor into upcoming race events on the Supercars calendar.

No. 78 Best Leisure Industries Ford Falcon FG X
Zak Best
Race 6 Quali: 1m14.49s, 1st
Race 6 Finish: 1st
“So good, we just executed today. I put it on pole, which was awesome after coming so close the last couple races, got a good start, and had a really good battle with Broc and Jayden the first few corners, and Broc (Feeney) put the pressure on all race. I just tried to keep it smooth and look after the tyres, at one point I went too deep into Turn 2 but Broc went deeper, so we just soldiered on, and we managed to bring it home P1. It’s a great reward for the team, the boys did a great job giving me a good car, and it’s always great to end the weekend with champagne.”

SUPERCARS DRIVERS’ CHAMPIONSHIP
1) Shane van Gisbergen – 1729 points
2) Jamie Whincup – 1490
3) Chaz Mostert – 1364
4) Cam Waters – 1361
9) James Courtney – 972
17) Jack Le Brocq – 814

SUPERCARS TEAMS’ CHAMPIONSHIP
1) Triple Eight Race Engineering – 3219
2) Dick Johnson Racing – 2451
3) Tickford Racing – 2333

DUNLOP SUPER2 SERIES CHAMPIONSHIP
1) Broc Feeney – 678 points
2) Zak Best – 627
3) Jayden Ojeda – 624