AUSTRALIA - Cam Waters (No. 6 Monster Energy Ford Mustang) has finished up a sensational weekend at the Winton SuperSprint with two poles, a second place finish, and a win on Sunday at the fifth round of the 2022 Supercars season. In addition to his front row start and win in Saturday’s Race 13, Waters scored the most points outright across the weekend’s three races, and has climbed to third in the Supercars drivers’ championship.   

Waters’ success was met with similar car pace from his Tickford Racing team mates, but race results varied across the team’s other three entries. Thomas Randle (No. 55 Castrol Racing Ford Mustang) recorded finishes of 18th and 12th on Sunday at Winton, with a better result in Race 14 going begging after being forced off the track late in the race, costing him track position.

James Courtney (No. 5 Snowy Rivery Caravans Ford Mustang) finished a solid eighth in Race 14 early Sunday afternoon, but had a troublesome Race 15 that saw the former Supercars champion finish 27th. Courtney was involved in two separate on-track incidents in Race 15, first tangling with team mate Jake Kostecki at Turn 10 in a miscommunication between the two drivers, and a separate run-in with Car 3 damaged Courtney’s steering, forcing him into the garage for repairs. Despite the sour finish to his weekend, Courtney remains 10th in the Supercars standings.

It was a rough Sunday for Kostecki, who climbed from 27th to 18th in Race 14 before being collected in the aftermath of Randle’s off, dropping him to 20th in the first race of the day. Then after starting 12th in Race 15, was inadvertently spun by Courtney and ended up dropping to the rear of the field, ultimately finishing 25th.

The Supercars Championship returns to action June 17-19 with the Darwin Triple Crown at Hidden Valley Raceway.

DRIVERS’ VIEW
No. 5 Snowy River Caravans Ford Mustang
James Courtney
Race 14 Quali: 1m19.32s, 15th
Race 15 Quali: 1m18.92s, 15th
Race 14 Finish: 8th
Race 15 Finish: 27th
“I’m obviously pretty disappointed with how our weekend ended. Firstly, apologies to Jake and his crew, the both of us and Thomas all stopped early and were running line astern in the middle part of the race. I felt I was faster than them and was hoping to get ahead and try to make some ground, and going towards Turn 10 I thought Jake was opening the door to let me through, but obviously he turned in and we made contact. Then later on Sladey came out of the pits next to me and we went side-by-side into Turn 1 and 2 and banged wheels going into 2, which broke my steering and we both went off, so yeah, a pretty disappointing end to the weekend. On the positive side we finished eighth in the first race today and banked some points, and obviously Cam was amazing today so congratulations to him and the team. We’ll head to Darwin next after a test day to try some things with the cars and look to have another good outing up there.”
 
No. 6 Monster Energy Ford Mustang
Cam Waters
Race 14 Quali: 1m18.55s, 1st
Race 15 Quali: 1m18.34s, 1st
Race 14 Finish: 2nd
Race 15 Finish: 1st
“Obviously it’s been a massive weekend for us, and it’s a huge thanks to the team. We’ve been working super hard in the background to improve our race pace, we’ve been stepping up every round and I think this weekend everything just aligned and we made it happen. The car was speedy when we rolled her out and we got quicker and quicker across the weekend which was awesome. It’s really cool, most of the time since I’ve been here we’d have a good day and get a podium or a win, but we wouldn’t be able to back it up the next day. I feel like this weekend’s been the first time we’ve been able to do that, and it’s definitely a good feeling.”
 
No. 55 Castrol Racing Ford Mustang
Thomas Randle
Race 14 Quali: 1m19.27s, 14th
Race 15 Quali: 1m18.95s, 16th
Race 14 Finish: 18th
Race 15 Finish: 12th
“Today was an okay day for us, the Castrol Racing Ford Mustang was pretty good, we weren’t fantastic in qualifying but solidly in the mid-pack, and I think we had pretty good race pace and strategy, so 12^th in the second race was pretty solid. The first race was pretty frustrating, getting knocked off late in the race, but I guess that’s motorsport. We’ll tune it up for Darwin, I had a lot of fun racing there last year so I’m definitely looking forward to head back north.”
 
No. 56 Tradie Ford Mustang
Jake Kostecki
Race 14 Quali: 1m20.05s, 27th
Race 15 Quali: 1m18.81s, 12th
Race 14 Finish: 20th
Race 15 Finish: 25th
“We just can’t seem to buy any luck at the moment. I made a mistake in first qualifying which was frustrating and probably got a little bit more frustrating when we qualified 12^th for the second race. Then in Race (14) we had good strategy and made up some spots, then with a few laps to go Thomas got sent wide and when he came back on track we were side by side and I ran out of room at the next corner, he said his tyres were dirty and he had really bad push so it’s just one of those things. And in the second race Thomas, JC and I were all running together after our stop and JC drilled me going into Turn 10, he thought I was letting him through and apologised after the race, it’s really unfortunate but what can you do. Congrats again to Cam, it’s great for him and the team to have a weekend like that. I know we deserve better results on our end of the garage, so we’ll keep working hard and hope to have a better run in Darwin.”
 
Tim Edwards, Team Principal
“It was a tremendous way to finish a fantastic weekend from Cam, the team gave him a great car and he drove brilliantly again. Weekends like that don’t come around very often, but it’s certainly been a goal of ours to be at that level more consistently, so it’s an excellent showing by the team to put on such a performance. Obviously we had challenges with each of our other cars which is pretty unfortunate, all of them had better speed than their results showed. We’ll address those just as much as we’ll celebrate Cam’s achievements, but it’s a good feeling showing that we can perform at that level we aim to be at.”
 
SUPERCARS DRIVERS’ CHAMPIONSHIP
1) Shane van Gisbergen – 1376 points
2) Anton De Pasquale – 1095
3) Cam Waters – 1043
10) James Courtney – 764
19) Thomas Randle – 490
24) Jake Kostecki – 419
 
SUPERCARS TEAMS’ CHAMPIONSHIP
1) Triple Eight Race Engineering – 2263 points
2) Dick Johnson Racing – 2113
3) Tickford Racing (5/6) – 1807
11) Tickford Racing (55/56) – 909