WATERS WINS RACE 17 NED WHISKY TASMANIAN SUPERSPRINT

Cameron Waters ended an action packed Tasmanian finale with the win in Race 18 of the 2024 Repco Supercars Championship from a resurgent Will Brown and a rather surprised Bryce Fullwood.

Fullwood had been set for a fine fifth place result during the closing stages of the race, only to find third and fourth placed Broc Feeney and Thomas Randle entangled at the Turn 4 hairpin. A quick piece of avoidance rewarded the BJR driver with the final step on the podium.

It was a rather disappointing end for Randle, who had placed the Castrol Mustang on pole position and ran just behind teammate Waters in the opening stages of the race.

The pair bumped in the jostle for the lead, and then Randle went wide at the hairpin, which handed the lead to his teammate.

“Cold tyres on the front, just over anticipated the grip,” Randle said later of the first lap incident.

“I was lucky to only lose out to Cam, but from then we were actually having a pretty good race.”

Waters took control of the race from that point on, with Randle riding shotgun for the opening six laps of the race.

SEE THE FULL NED WHISKY SUPERSPRINT GALLERY HERE

A Lap 7 incident between Brodie Kostecki and David Reynolds at the exit of the Turn 4 hairpin, saw the Tradie Camaro stuck on the inside embankment. Kostecki received both damage to his car which was compounded by two subsequent drive-through penalties, ironically both involving Team 18 cars.

His first penalty was for the contact with Reynolds, whilst the second arose in the pitlane for an unsafe release of the #1 into the path of Mark Winterbottom.

The early Safety Car intervention brought havoc to the pitlane as most of the field made their compulsory stop.

It also afforded an opportunity for Red Bull Ampol Racing to promote Will Brown with an undercut.

That worked to perfection as most of the field elected to complete their mandatory stop. Randle had to double stack behind the race leader and Will Brown subsequently jumped into second.

That resulted in Randle spending most of the race entrenched in a duel with Brown for P2. A series of clashes from Turn 4 to Turn 7 eventually had Randle off the track at the final corner and down a place to the second Red Bull Ampol entry of Broc Feeney.

“Yeah we were racing pretty hard at the hairpin, Will likes to bump and run so I just did what he likes to do at the hairpin,” Randle explained post-race.

“He was pushing me hard onto the grass at the exit, it felt like he hit me at Turn 6 after I was past, and then he obviously regained the position.”

The race resumed on Lap 11 with a number of skirmishes for position, with no significant incident.

That all changed on Lap 19 when the Jaxon Evans in the BJR Camaro and the Cooldrive Mustang of Aaron Love came to blows on the front straight. Contact ended with both cars off the circuit on the approach to Turn 2. Evans made heavy contact with the wall and stopped in the gravel trap, whilst Love managed to make his way back to the garage. It led to the second Safety Car period inside the first 20 laps of the race.

Waters lead at the restart from Brown, Randle and Fullwood. Lebrocq was fourth and under pressure from Feeney,

With 11 laps left to run Feeney had closed on Randle, who had been unable to find a way back past Brown. That led to the bump and run at Turn 4 and the subsequent off-track excursion at the final corner.

Randle’s attempts to recover those lost places eventually led to a misjudgement in the dying stages

“But what happened with Feeney, that was totally my fault, but I probably should’ve got the move done properly on Will and the whole thing could’ve been avoided,” Randle added.

“I’m just gutted with my mistake into Turn 4 with five to go, that was all my fault, I’ve got no one else to blame but myself, and I’ll be kicking myself over that one for a while.

“Just a real shame because it was a really good chance to capitalise on some good points.

“Obviously I’m happy for Cam to get the win, we clearly had the speed, just doesn’t feel real that that’s just happened.”

The incident saw Feeney plummet down to 16th, while Randle crossed the line in sixth only to be classified in 18th after a fifteen-second post-race penalty was applied.

Cameron Waters took the win from Brown and Fullwood. Chaz Mostert drove back from eleventh on the grid to fourth at the chequered flag, ahead of Le Brocq, Heimgartner, Percat, Wood, Winterbottom and Slade.

“I’m so happy to get the win,” Waters said.

“I got a good start and so did Tommy, and he fought hard for Turn 1 which was fine, and he just made a little mistake at Turn 4 and ran wide, but I’m gutted for him, he probably should be up here on the podium with me.

“I was just trying to keep a small gap to Will and trying to let him cook his tyres, and I knew Tommy was in there, and with 20 to go I started to push on.

“I tried to break the tow for Will and make it easier for Tom, I’m not really sure what happened to him.”

Main Photo: Waters FB

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