Tickford locks in 2022 Bathurst 1000 line-up

TICKFORD RACING – 2022 BATHURST PAIRINGS
24 June, 2022
Tickford Racing has firmed up its driver pairings for the 2022 Bathurst 1000, where the four-car Ford squad will look to claim its third victory in Australia’s most prestigious motor race.

The lone pairing that carries over from 2021, Cam Waters and James Moffat will continue their partnership in the No. 6 Monster Energy Ford Mustang following their run to second place in last year’s edition of the Great Race.

“I’m very excited to partner with Cam again at Bathurst,” Moffat said. “He and the Car 6 boys have really been in form over the last few rounds which is very encouraging, and the team’s operating well as a whole which is a good sign for the rest of the year. Cam and I worked well together last year and it was awesome standing on the podium again, but obviously you go there to stand on the middle step, and that’s absolutely our goal come October.”

On the other side of that garage, James Courtney will be joined by Zane Goddard in the No. 5 Mustang, which arms the 2010 champion with a seasoned young gun as he looks to finally stand on the top step at Mount Panorama.
 
“It’s a great opportunity to partner with James at Bathurst,” Goddard said. “JC’s always been speedy at Bathurst and the team’s always competitive there, so there’s every chance we should be right in the fight. It sort of brings things full circle as well, James really helped me with my career when I was younger and went off to Europe, so to race with him at Bathurst is going to be pretty special, hopefully we can go there and bring home a really strong result. I did have an opportunity to race elsewhere the rest of the year, and it’s no secret I do want to get back to a full-time drive in Supercars, but this opportunity to drive with James and Tickford can’t be overlooked. I genuinely think we can go for the win, and I can’t wait to get there and give it a red hot crack.”

Next door in the Car 55/56 garage, Thomas Randle will be partnered with Zak Best in the Castrol Racing entry, who impressed in his Bathurst debut in 2021 and currently races for Tickford in the Dunlop Super2 Series and made his solo Supercars debut as a wildcard at Darwin last weekend.
 
“I’m really excited to be racing in the Bathurst 1000 again, and to race with Thomas is going to be really cool,” Best said. “We were team mates in Super2 in 2020 and spent a lot of time together, and we’ve worked pretty closely since I’ve been at Tickford so we get along well, and I think that will help us on the track. Last year was pretty surreal making my first start, but I’ve learned a lot since then and I think we can be a really strong pairing come race day.”

A family affair will occupy the Tradie Ford Mustang come October, where full-time driver Jake Kostecki will be paired with his brother Kurt, who joins the team ahead of his third Bathurst 1000.
 
“It’s great to be teaming up with Jake again, I think I know a thing or two about him so I think we’ll work well together,” 23-year old Kurt said jokingly. “We raced together last year at Bathurst and ran fairly well, seeing how Jake’s progressing this year and how the team are competing overall is really exciting. They’re always in the game at Bathurst so we know we’ll have a car to compete which is awesome. Obviously it’s all about just being there at the end so we’ll work up to that when we get there, but I’m really looking forward to getting on track later in the year and giving it our best shot.”
 
Tickford Racing CEO and Team Principal Tim Edwards commented on the pairings, which he believes sets up each of the team’s entries to compete for the win at the category’s biggest race.
 
“We certainly have a very strong driver line-up this year, and we’re very happy with how our pairings have come together” Edwards said. “The level of competition in this category gets stronger every year and at Bathurst it’s critical to have drivers who are both fast, reliable, and work well together, and you can apply those to all of our drivers and pairings. Of course you never know what Bathurst is going to throw at you, but we’ve shown good car speed all season which we’ve continued to improve on; then add in the team behind that and this driver group, and I think we can certainly factor in at the pointy end when it counts in October.”
 
The Bathurst 1000 is the only endurance race on the 2022 Supercars calendar, and takes place October 6-9 at Mount Panorama. Supercars next hit the track for the NTI Townsville 500, July 8-10 on the streets of Townsville in North Queensland.
 
Ends.