Cam Waters tops Friday on the Gold Coast

TICKFORD RACING – GOLD COAST 500 FRIDAY REPORT28 October, 2022
Cam Waters (No. 6 Monster Energy Ford Mustang) has topped Friday’s running on the streets of Surfers Paradise, leading Practice 2 at the Gold Coast 500. The 28-year old, who was also third in Practice 1 earlier on Friday, heads into Saturday’s action with momentum following Friday’s pace, as he searches for his first win on the Gold Coast.

A cleaner Practice 2 for James Courtney (No. 5 Snowy River Caravans Ford Mustang) saw the 2015 Gold Coast winner 11^th on the time sheets after losing multiple laps in Practice 1 due to kerb strikes on the tricky chicanes of Turns 1-3 and 6-10.

With only one previous experience each at the Queensland circuit, young guns Thomas Randle (No. 55 Castrol Racing Ford Mustang) and Jake Kostecki (No. 56 Tradie Ford Mustang) spent Friday’s two practice sessions re-acclimating to the challenging 2.96-kilometre circuit. While both had laps deleted by kerb strikes, the duo are confident in the ultimate pace that can be unlocked on Saturday.

Supercars action at the Gold Coast 500 resumes Saturday with Race 31 qualifying at 11:25 a.m. AEST, followed by a Top Ten Shootout at 1:05 p.m., ahead of the 85-lap, 250-kilometre Race 31 which begins at 3:45 p.m.

DRIVERS’ VIEW
No. 5 Snowy River Caravans Ford Mustang
James Courtney
Practice 1: 1m11.91s, 17th
Practice 2: 1m11.24s, 11th
“It’s great to be running around this place again, it is seriously wild, so much fun, launching and sliding through the chicanes, you know you feel alive when you’re racing around here. The day was pretty good for us, I got a little kerb hop at the end, otherwise we probably would have been a bit higher up and closer to Cam. I’m sure everyone has those stories, but the car’s been quick all day which is good. To get back into a car I haven’t driven in a long time – and after all the work the boys have put in building it over the past couple weeks – and be competitive straight away, it really shows the strength of this team. I’m super impressed with the guys, the car’s working really well. We have a few little teething issues but we’ll work those out overnight and I’m pretty confident we can be comfortably in the top 10 come tomorrow.”
 
No. 6 Monster Energy Ford Mustang
Cam Waters
Practice 1: 1m11.48s, 3rd
Practice 2: 1m10.72s, 1st
“It was pretty wild today, I think a lot of us forgot just how wild this track can be, I was scraping the fence and stuff, probably a little bit too close for my liking. The car’s fast though which is good, we definitely made a few improvements between the sessions which is great. We have a pretty good one-lap car and we have a fair idea of what we need from it for a race car so we’ll keep chipping away at that. So far so good, and we’ll see how we go tomorrow.”
 
No. 55 Castrol Racing Ford Mustang
Thomas Randle
Practice 1:
Practice 2
“Today was okay, just working up to it on my push laps, obviously I’ve only been here once in a Supercar and it’s so easy to go over the edge. I had a few kerb strikes myself so today was just about finding the limit. I’m fairly happy with the car, I think we have something good enough for the top 10 or there abouts, and we’ll make some changes tonight to try and find some more speed. It’s good having a team car up there in Cam, it gives us something to work towards, so we’ll keep at it, have a good crack in quali, and look to start off our Saturday on the right foot tomorrow morning.”
 
No. 56 Tradie Ford Mustang
Jake Kostecki
Practice 1:
Practice 2
“It was a bit of a tough day for us, just getting back into the rhythm of driving around here is pretty challenging and I got a fair few kerb strikes that deleted our times. We made some good changes to the car for Practice 2 which made it a bit better, and unfortunately on my last lap another guy decided to just dive bomb me into Turn 1 and I had to bail out. The time sheets don’t tell the story, we’re reasonably quick and we’ll tune the car up tonight to make it a bit nicer, then just try and put a good lap together in quali and put us in a good starting spot for the race.”
 
Tim Edwards, Team Principal
“It’s never a bad thing to have one of your cars top the day. Cam’s obviously rolled out on the money which gives us a good direction, and there are good signs from the other cars, so even though it’s only practice it’s a decent start to the weekend for us. Everyone will say there’s more time in it, and there is, but obviously it’ll all come down to doing the right lap at the right time in quali tomorrow. Hopefully we’ll have all four cars up towards the front and set ourselves up for a good 250 kay race tomorrow.”
 
Ends.