Waters braves wet to Bathurst 1000 provisional pole
October 8, 2022
Waters & Moffat finish third in Bathurst 1000 as fight back falls short
October 9, 2022
TICKFORD RACING – BATHURST 1000 SATURDAY REPORT
8 October, 2022
Cam Waters (No. 6 Monster Energy Ford Mustang) has claimed pole position for the 2022 Bathurst 1000 on Saturday afternoon, after torrential rains forced the cancellation of the Top Ten Shootout at Mount Panorama. The result is Waters ninth pole of the 2022 Supercars season, 19th of his career, and second Bathurst 1000 pole, the other being 2020. It is Tickford Racing’s 101st pole in team history and seventh pole at the Bathurst 1000.
With no Top Ten Shootout on Saturday, Tickford Racing’s four cars will start where they qualified in Friday’s group qualifying session. James Courtney and Zane Goddard (No. 5 Snowy River Caravans Ford Mustang) will start eighth, Thomas Randle and Zak Best (No. 55 Castrol Racing Ford Mustang) in 15th, and Jake and Kurt Kostecki (No. 56 Tradie Ford Mustang) from 17th.
After a morning warm up at 8:00 a.m. AEDT, Waters and co-driver James Moffat will lead the field to the grid on Sunday morning at Bathurst, with Australia’s Great Race scheduled to begin at 11:15 a.m.
DRIVERS’ VIEW
No. 6 Monster Energy Ford Mustang
Cam Waters
Practice 5 (Moffat): 2m26.99s, 7th
Practice 6: 2m05.98s, 4th
Top Ten Shootout: n/a, 1st
“Yesterday was great, being quickest in the wet, that’s obviously cool, but (usually) you know you’ve still got the Shootout to come. But yeah, respect to the decision they’ve made. The Shootout, for me, is probably one of the highlights of the year, I love getting into it and then putting it all on the line for a lap. I find that pretty exciting and love it, but obviously the water that was on the track was crazy. For me, it’s not really about the safety as much, the drivers do drive to the conditions, but it’s more about the cars. In the Shootout you put it all on the line, it’s our egos driving it a lot of the time, and if we end up in the fence and tear the car up and are not able to race tomorrow, that’s probably the bigger issue for me. We’ve got 28 cars starting the race tomorrow, and tomorrow’s probably the bigger thing that we all want to win.”
James Moffat
“Obviously it’s a bit of a shame that we didn’t get the Shootout in today, but it’s awesome to be on pole with Cam and the boys. Cam put in a ripper lap yesterday, he did all the hard work when it counted, so I’m just glad to be along for the ride. Tomorrow’s a long day, we know it doesn’t matter where you start here, but it’ll be nice to start up front and we definitely aim to finish up there. We’ll get a good rest tonight and give it a red hot crack tomorrow.”
Tim Edwards, Team Principal
“We all wanted to have a Shootout, it’s by far one of the most intense and entertaining sessions of our year, but unfortunately the conditions were too unsafe to send cars out. The rivers across the track were bigger than we’ve seen all weekend, and with it taking several laps to get the cars up to temperature in the wet they were certainly very dangerous conditions. It’s unfortunate for the fans who stuck it out in the rain and of course for us as competitors, but it’s the right call and while it’s certainly not the way we wanted to get the pole, it’s not like we’re disappointed in the result. Fortunately tomorrow’s looking a bit more friendly weather-wise, and it’s the biggest day of the year. We’ll look forward to starting up front in the morning, and hopefully finishing there in the afternoon.”
DUNLOP SUPER2 SERIES
The torrid conditions also put paid to Saturday’s Dunlop Super2 Series race, which was set to run just prior to the Top Ten Shootout. With no second race contested, Zak Best (No. 78 Best Leisure Industries Ford Falcon FG X) was declared winner of the round, having won Saturday’s Race 9, which was also weather-affected. It is Best’s third round win of 2022, and the 20-year old now lies just 75 points out of the championship lead.
The Dunlop Super2 Series season finale takes place December 1-4 on the streets of Adelaide, at the highly-anticipated Adelaide 500.
No. 78 Best Leisure Industries Ford Falcon FG X
Zak Best
Race 10 Quali: 2m08.05s, 3rd
Race 10 Finish: n/a
“It’s pretty good to take the round win, I’m disappointed we didn’t get to race and try to take more points off Declan (Fraser, championship leader), but I was happy to get the pole and win yesterday. There was nothing we could do about today, unfortunately, but we’ll go into Adelaide and have a crack. It’s been a tough year, from starting the year leading the championship, dropping to seventh in Perth, and then just slowly climbing back. Hopefully we can head to Adelaide in December and come out on top.”
Tim Edwards, Team Principal
“We’re really happy for Zak, obviously he wanted to race today to try and gain points in the championship, but it says something to have three round wins to two race wins. He’s had a couple of bad races outside of his control, but outside of that he’s been very steady and competitive. The one blemish of his weekend was hitting the wall after he had the pole yesterday, but at that point he didn’t know he had it and was pushing like a race car driver should. He’s had a good weekend and made good progress in the championship, and we’re looking forward to chasing that championship with him in Adelaide.”
DUNLOP SUPER2 SERIES DRIVERS’ CHAMPIONSHIP
1) Declan Fraser – 1083 points
2) Zak Best – 1008
3) Matthew Payne – 951
Ends.
