AUSTRALIA - Cam Waters and James Moffat (No. 6 Monster Energy Ford Mustang) have finished third in the 2022 Bathurst 1000, capping an impressive comeback after being spun in the early stages of the race. It is both drivers’ third Bathurst 1000 podium, and the third consecutive podium for Waters in the ‘1000’ after runner-up finishes in 2020 and 2021.
 
After claiming pole position through Saturday’s washout of the Top Ten Shootout, Waters and Moffat ran comfortably in the top five over the race’s first few stints, but on Lap 45 Moffat was spun by Car 99 at the Cutting, dropping the No. 6 Mustang from sixth to 21^st. The subsequent charge saw the duo climb back into the top four by Lap 82, with Waters making the decisive pass for third – coincidentally on Car 99 – into Griffins Bend on a Lap 146 restart.
 
The result sees Waters retain second in the Supercars drivers’ championship with four races remaining in the 2022 Supercars season.
 
The early laps of the Great Race were brutal to Tickford Racing’s other three cars, with both Zak Best (No. 55 Castrol Racing Ford Mustang) and Zane Goddard (No. 5 Snowy River Caravans Ford Mustang) taken out of the race in the first five laps in separate incidents.
 
Best, driving with Thomas Randle in Car 55, saw his race end after just one corner, with the 20-year old collected in a first lap crash on Mountain Straight. Approaching two pirouetting cars, Best was forced to take to the grass to avoid a collision, and once on the muddy infield lost control of the car and slapped the inside wall. With a damaged car stuck in the mud, Best and Randle’s race was over just a few hundred meters into the competition.
 
Goddard race barely went further, as the 22-year old – partnered with James Courtney – ran wide at the Chase when attempting a pass at the end of Conrod Straight on the ensuing Lap 5 restart. Carrying on through the muddy grass, Goddard lost control as he neared re-entering the track and slid across the circuit into the path of oncoming traffic before being hit hard by two cars, ending the races of all three. Goddard was uninjured in the incident, but he and Courtney, like Best and Randle, were sidelined before the race’s first round of pit stops.
 
A challenging weekend for the Tradie Racing duo of Jake and Kurt Kostecki (No. 56 Tradie Ford Mustang) was cruelly met with an arduous Bathurst 1000 on Sunday, in which Jake was also caught up in, but survived, the Lap 1 crash that claimed Best, before later bringing out the Safety Car himself on Lap 15, spearing off at the Chase. After spending a period of the race two laps down, the pair made their way back on the lead lap, ran as high as 12^th, and finished all 161 laps of the day’s race en route to a 17^th place finish.
 
The Supercars Championship returns to action in three weeks at the Gold Coast 500, where the championship will make its long-awaited return to the streets of Surfers Paradise on the October 28-30 weekend.

DRIVERS’ VIEW
No. 5 Snowy River Caravans Ford Mustang
James Courtney
Race 30 Start: 8th
Race 30 Finish: DNF
“Unfortunately it’s not the first time I haven’t turned a lap in the race here, but it’s really unfortunate to see Zane out so early. It looks like he was just trying to make an early move and ran off, and unfortunately with all the water in the grass you can’t just skate across it and press on, and he got caught in the mud and accidentally triggered a pretty big pile up. Fortunately he’s okay, that’s the main thing, but it’s a real shame we weren’t able to see the day through and see how we would have fared.”
 
Zane Goddard
“I’m okay physically, but devastated, obviously. I think JC and I were in a really good position for today, the car was feeling good, and unfortunately I just made a mistake. I had a run on Murph (Greg Murphy) down Conrod, went to make the move and locked a brake into the Chase. Once I was in the mud I knew I had to keep my speed up to not get bogged, but I had to keep control as well. I felt fine but right before I got back to the track I hit another big puddle and the car just went straight and unfortunately speared across the track and took a couple big hits. I’m really sorry to the team at Tickford and Snowy River Racing, JC, and of course Woody (Dale Wood) and Matt (Campbell), it was a little mistake but obviously had big consequences.”
 
No. 6 Monster Energy Ford Mustang
Cam Waters
Race 30 Start: 1st
Race 30 Finish: 3rd
“We gave it everything we had. We had a fast car all day, then obviously Moff got turned by Brodie (Kostecki) in the middle of the race, and it became a battle after that to get back to the front. It was awesome to get back up there, but obviously we’re still disappointed to come up short of the win. I guess that’s Bathurst, it throws crazy things at you and there’s always a story. It’s cool to be consistent here the last few years and always be in contention, but yeah, disappointed not to be on that top step.”
 
James Moffat
“It was probably going okay for us until Brodie just drove like a dickhead at The Cutting and turned us around. It put us on the back foot, really for the rest of the day. I’m proud of the team for putting their heads down and not giving up, and Cam drove the wheels off it like he always does, so to get back on the podium is nice. We probably just weren’t quite fast enough with the car speed, and then when you get stuck behind cars it’s just so difficult to follow in these current generation cars. You’ve really only got a lap or two to pull the move, otherwise it’s usually follow-the-leader.”
 
No. 55 Castrol Racing Ford Mustang
Thomas Randle
Race 30 Start: 15th
Race 30 Finish: DNF
“It was incredibly disappointing to see Zak caught up in that first lap melee. He really had nowhere to go and the grass was so wet, as soon as he got on there he was gone. It was such a helpless feeling watching it all unfold, but I guess that’s Bathurst, some days just aren’t meant to be.”
 
Zak Best
“Obviously I’m gutted, to have the race over so quickly was just a shock. We knew it was wet in Turn 1 and up Mountain Straight, so I tried to take it relatively easy on the start. Then ahead of me a few cars came together and all of a sudden there were two cars spinning in front of me. I tried to slow down but it got to the point I either had to take the grass or hit one of them, and when I went for the grass I lost my steering in the mud and hit the wall. It’s a huge disappointment to be out so early, unfortunately there was nothing else I could do.”
 
No. 56 Tradie Ford Mustang
Jake Kostecki
Race 30 Start: 17th
Race 30 Finish: 17th
“On one hand, 17^th isn’t nearly the result we wanted, but after the weekend we’ve had and the way our race started, I guess we can take a little solace in finishing 1000 kays today. We got caught up in the crash on Lap 1, I had a pretty similar moment to Zak on the other side of the track trying to avoid the guys spinning. I hit the wall but I was able to keep it going and get back to the pits. The car wasn’t quite straight and not long after that I spun off at the Chase, but we did get it a bit better in the garage and battled back from a couple laps down to finish on the lead lap. It’s nothing to be thrilled about, but it’s been a tough week for us so we’ll take the points and move on. A big thanks to the boys for their hard work and perseverance, we’ll press on to the Goldie in a few weeks.”
 
Kurt Kostecki
“Unfortunately most of my day was spent working to get us back on the lead lap. It’s not how we wanted our Bathurst 1000 to go, it was a tough start to the race with Jake getting caught up in that crash on Lap 1, then spinning off after that, so by the time I got in the car we were well on the back foot. We managed to get back to the lead lap, and I felt like I had a couple of decent stints which was nice, and we got to the end when a lot of good cars didn’t, so it is what it is.”
 
Tim Edwards, Team Principal
“This place can really bruise you. It was obviously a very rough start, three-fourths of our cars were either out of the race or out of contention by Lap 5, and then when Moff got spun and our two cars left were outside the top 20, you can imagine the garage wasn’t the most pleasant place to be. But credit to our crews and drivers, they battled and persevered, even those whose cars were out of the race, and in the case of Car 6 we chipped away and got Cam and Moff back in the game. We gave it everything we had and they drove the wheels off the thing, but third was all there was. It does sting, between being so close three years in a row and the brutal run our other cars had, to be honest it wasn’t a very happy day. But that will probably fade away over the next few weeks and we’ll go again. The fact that we turned what could have been a disaster into a podium is something we can be proud of, but we’re only interested in the top step at Bathurst, so rest assured we’ll be back in 12 months to give it another crack.”
 
SUPERCARS DRIVERS’ CHAMPIONSHIP
1) Shane van Gisbergen – 3082 points
2) Cam Waters – 2515
3) Anton De Pasquale – 2305
14) James Courtney – 1421
21) Jake Kostecki – 1039
23) Thomas Randle – 973
 
SUPERCARS TEAMS’ CHAMPIONSHIP
1) Triple Eight Race Engineering – 5156 points
2) Dick Johnson Racing – 4485
3) Tickford Racing (5/6) – 3936
12) Tickford Racing (55/56) – 1982