Cam Waters tops Friday on the Gold Coast
October 28, 2022
Bruising Sunday sees Waters finish seventh in Race 32
October 30, 2022TICKFORD RACING – GOLD COAST 500 SATURDAY REPORT
29 October, 2022
Cam Waters (No. 6 Monster Energy Ford Mustang) and James Courtney (No. 5 Snowy River Caravans Ford Mustang) led the way for Tickford Racing on Saturday at the Gold Coast 500, finishing fifth and eighth, respectively, in Race 31 of the 2022 Supercars Championship season, with rookie Thomas Randle (No. 55 Castrol Racing Ford Mustang) finishing a solid 11th on the day. With the entire 85-lap race run without the interruption of a Safety Car, drivers were dealt a physical afternoon, forced to battle the intense street circuit and 30-plus degree heat throughout the day.
After qualifying third for Saturday’s 250-kilometre race, Waters was firmly amongst the battle for the podium until he collected the Turn 3 tyre barrier on Lap 50. Despite the dramatic incident that saw him spin out of the corner, Waters suffered only superficial damage, but the loss of time kept him from threatening for the podium in the race’s closing stages.
Castrol Racing rookie Randle impressed on Saturday morning, qualifying eighth and climbing to sixth in the Top Ten Shootout in his first ever attempt at qualifying on the tricky Surfers Paradise street circuit. Randle completed a relatively straightforward 250-kilometre race on Saturday, finishing 11th in his first race at the venue as a full-time driver.
Saturday was far from kind to Jake Kostecki (No. 56 Tradie Ford Mustang), who found the wall in morning qualifying, damaging the front of the No. 56 Ford and forcing him to start from the rear of the grid. Struggling for pace and comfort across the 85-lap race, Kostecki ultimately finished the race 23rd in a frustrating day for the 22-year old.
Supercars action at the Gold Coast 500 continues on Sunday with Race 32 qualifying at 9:55 a.m. AEST, followed by a Top Ten Shootout at 11:35 a.m., ahead of the 85-lap, 250-kilometre Race 31 which begins at 2:15 p.m.
DRIVERS’ VIEW
No. 5 Snowy River Caravans Ford Mustang
James Courtney
Race 31 Quali: 1m10.92s, 5th
Top Ten Shootout: 1m11.48s, 7th
Race 31 Finish: 8th
“After a bad couple of rounds it’s just nice to have a clean race and come out with some good points, to be honest. Big thanks to the boys on the Snowy River Mustang, it’s been a tough run the last couple months so it’s good to be comfortably in the 10 today and score some points. The car was pretty solid, we had good one-lap speed and it was cool to make the Shootout, and the race car was okay but we can do a few things to make it a bit nicer tomorrow. It was a fairly straightforward race, but a straightforward P8 is a good place to build from and hopefully go a bit better tomorrow.”
No. 6 Monster Energy Ford Mustang
Cam Waters
Race 31 Quali: 1m10.93s, 9th
Top Ten Shootout: 1m10.98s, 3rd
Race 31 Finish: 5th
“Fifth in the end today, which isn’t too bad. The car was fairly quick all day, I think it’s probably as quick as Chaz (Mostert) and Dave (Reynolds), it’s doing some stuff really well and some stuff not so well, so we have a bit to work on but we’re not too far away. It definitely wasn’t a normal P5, we were racing for third late in the race and I think I just lost the rear at the first corner. I couldn’t save it, hit the tyres at (Turn) 3, spun around, then just gassed it up and drove through the smoke, there was a fair bit happening but fortunately the car was still straight. The car looks like it’s been through a war, but it was still pretty quick and we got back a couple spots to finish in the top five, so an okay day, and hopefully we can bring a quicker car out tomorrow.”
No. 55 Castrol Racing Ford Mustang
Thomas Randle
Race 31 Quali: 1m10.93s, 8th
Top Ten Shootout: 1m11.24s, 6th
Race 31 Finish: 11th
“Today was a very reasonable day for the Castrol Racing crew. Having never qualified here before I was so excited to make the Top Ten Shootout and get a nice, clean lap to qualify P6. The race was pretty well, too, we just lost some time in the middle stint that dropped us some places, but I kind of put that down to having not raced here much before. There were a few good learnings from that which we used in the last stint and helped us out a bit, so I’m looking forward to putting that knowledge to use tomorrow. We were just outside the 10, but at a track like this I’m pretty happy with the day we had, and hopefully we’ll go a little bit better tomorrow.”
No. 56 Tradie Ford Mustang
Jake Kostecki
Race 31 Quali: no time, 24th
Top Ten Shootout: n/a
Race 31 Finish: 23rd
“It was definitely a frustrating day for us. Obviously we didn’t get off to a great start, I locked a brake going around the back of the circuit and got into the wall pretty hard. Fortunately it wasn’t a massive amount of damage, but it’s not what you want to give your team on a day like today, then obviously we started down the back as a result as well. In the race I really struggled for pace, I couldn’t really push the car at all or it felt like it was going to end up in the fence. It was a tough old slog, but we brought it home straight. We’ll need to have a close look overnight and figure out what was going on, but we’ll get it fixed up and go again tomorrow.”
Tim Edwards, Team Principal
“The conditions were pretty hard on the drivers today, so all in all they did a good job to bring the cars back fairly straight. Of course we’re always looking to stand on the podium and ideally the top step, but while we didn’t achieve that today there were some good takeaways. JC and Thomas did a great job, it’s good for them to get a result after the misfortune they’ve had recently, and Cam did well to climb back up to fifth after his so-called ‘moment.’ It was more than just a moment, it was pretty wild and he’s fairly lucky to get away with it, so fortunately we can laugh it off and press on to tomorrow. Obviously Jake had an incident in qualifying and it didn’t appear to get any better after that, we’ll have a good look and fix it up overnight so we’re ready for Sunday. Not a bad day, not a great day, but we’ll battle on and come back for another big day tomorrow.”
SUPERCARS DRIVERS’ CHAMPIONSHIP
1) Shane van Gisbergen – 3232 points
2) Cam Waters – 2626
3) Chaz Mostert – 2409
13) James Courtney – 1511
21) Jake Kostecki – 1075
23) Thomas Randle – 1045
SUPERCARS TEAMS’ CHAMPIONSHIP
1) Triple Eight Race Engineering – 5369 points
2) Dick Johnson Racing – 4707
3) Tickford Racing (5/6) – 4137
11) Tickford Racing (55/56) – 2090
Ends.
