Snowy River Caravans in tow with Courtney for Perth, Winton
April 28, 2022
Sour then sweet – Waters stripped of Race 11 win, Courtney scores P2 in Race 12
May 2, 2022
TICKFORD RACING – PERTH SUPERNIGHT SATURDAY REPORT
30 April, 2022
Cam Waters (No. 6 Monster Energy Ford Mustang) converted a front row start into a podium finish on Saturday at the Perth SuperNight, starting second and finishing third in Race 10 of the 2022 Supercars season. Coming on the eve of his 200th race start, the result is Waters’ 30th career Supercars podium, second of 2022, and second consecutive third place finish at Wanneroo Raceway following the most recent race at the venue, in 2019.
Despite pitting earlier than most of the cars around him, James Courtney (No. 5 Snowy River Caravans Ford Mustang) defended hard in the race’s closing stages to take seventh place in Race 10. The result moves Courtney up to 12th in the Supercars drivers’ championship, and elevates the garage pairing of Waters and Courtney to third in the teams’ championship through 10 races.
Thomas Randle (No. 55 Castrol Racing Ford Mustang) qualified ninth for Saturday’s race, the third time this season the rookie has qualified inside the top 10, and despite driving with a flat spotted right front tyre for much of the second half of the race, managed a 12th place finish in the first race of the weekend.
Tradie Racing driver Jake Kostecki (No. 56 Tradie Ford Mustang) was happy with his car pace across Saturday at Wanneroo Raceway, but after a small mistake in qualifying saw him start from 18th the 22-year old spent the majority of the 46-lap race stuck behind slower cars. After clearing traffic in the race’s late stages, Kostecki was able to produce lap times equal with Waters and the leaders, ultimately finishing 20th but confident better results are within grasp on Sunday.
The Perth SuperNight continues on Sunday with qualifying for Races 11 and 12 taking place back to back at 9:20 a.m. AWST, followed by Race 11 at 12:05 p.m., and 3:45 p.m.
DRIVERS’ VIEW
No. 5 Snowy River Caravans Ford Mustang
James Courtney
Practice 1: 54.66s, 14th
Practice 2: 54.26s, 10th
Race 10 Quali: 54.16s (Q3), 6th
Race 10 Finish: 7th
“It’s been a pretty wild ride today. Starting off sixth tonight was fantastic, but the start was horrendous, just bagged up and we went backwards. We pitted quite early and then ran long, so we really had to conserve those tyres across the stint. There was maybe five laps where it went a bit crazy and we lost a bit of ground, but we had some great battles as well and I had some massive lunges down into Turn 7. It’s so hard to pass here and you really have to commit quite aggressively, we damaged a tyre trying to do that so that probably hurt our performance towards the end of the race, but all in all it’s a good points haul. We’re back in third in the teams’ championship which is fantastic, it’s great to back up the good speed we had at the Grand Prix and get some more consistency in the team, and congrats to Cam and those boys on the podium.”
No. 6 Monster Energy Ford Mustang
Cam Waters
Practice 1: 53.99s, 1st
Practice 2: 54.28s, 11th
Race 10 Quali: 53.71s (Q3), 2nd
Race 10 Finish: 3rd
“We had a really fast car, it’s good to qualify second and race up the front with these guys. We’ve had a pretty tough few rounds so far, so it’s good to bounce back with really good car speed and get a podium. I think we had the speed to get ahead of Anton (De Pasquale), but he did a good enough job to keep us just far enough behind where I couldn’t quite get there. It’s a little disappointing, but it’s good to get a trophy, and we have two more chances tomorrow in the daytime so we’ll tune it up tonight and go again tomorrow.”
No. 55 Castrol Racing Ford Mustang
Thomas Randle
Practice 1: 54.99s, 20th
Practice 2: 54.36s, 16th
Race 10 Quali: 54.35s (Q3), 9th
Race 10 Finish: 12th
“We had a good qualifying, getting in the top 10, so great effort from all the boys, it was a great little pump up for everyone. In the race we were tracking along really well, and I didn’t dance on the pedals so well at one point and locked the right front pretty badly at the last corner. I just nursed it home for the last 15 laps and managed to hold onto P12. That was good, we’re really close to cracking the top 10 in a race now. It’s coming, so we’ll try even harder tomorrow and hopefully we can get it done.”
No. 56 Tradie Ford Mustang
Jake Kostecki
Practice 1: 54.68s, 15th
Practice 2: 54.73s, 24th
Race 10 Quali: 54.24s (Q2), 18th
Race 10 Finish: 20th
“First off congrats to Cam and his crew for getting the podium tonight. My side today was an average day, we tuned her up for practice and went into qualifying with a pretty good car to be honest. We had good speed, I just didn’t piece it all together at the right time in Q2 so we didn’t make Q3, but the pace was there. In the race today it was just a bit of a gravy train, follow the leader and we ended up P20, we had good car speed but just couldn’t really put it to use. We’ve just got to do a better job in qualifying and hopefully get up there tomorrow, we’re all working hard and the boys are tuning up the car so let’s see how we go.”
Tim Edwards, Team Principal
“Overall, tonight was one of those ‘good, not great’ results. Of course a podium’s always good, Cam could have been second or first if certain things went our way so that’s a little disappointing, but he was on it from the start of the day so we’re feeling good about his car. JC and Thomas both did a great job hanging on at the end to score good points, and unfortunately Jake didn’t have the track position to show his car speed which was actually very good. It’s been a bumpy start to the season so on the whole we’ll certainly take a result like that, but certainly there are areas we can improve for tomorrow so we’ll keep tuning away and look to make those gains tomorrow.”
DUNLOP SUPER2 SERIES
Entering this weekend as the championship leader in the Dunlop Super2 Series, Zak Best (No. 78 Best Leisure Industries Ford Falcon FG X) endured a frustrating Saturday at the Perth SuperNight. After having to back out of a personal best lap in qualifying, Best started from 10th in Race 3 of the Super2 season, only to be taken out of the contest on Lap 14 when a backmarker made contact with the 20-year old at Turn 5, spinning Best out of the race with a damaged left rear corner.
Following Saturday’s DNF, Best will look to rebound on Sunday, with Super2 Race 4 qualifying beginning at 8:55 a.m. AWST, and the 26-lap race scheduled for 2:25 p.m.
No. 78 Best Leisure Industries Ford Falcon FGX
Zak Best
Race 3 Quali: 55.90s, 10th
Race 3 Finish: DNF
“It was just a really frustrating day for us. I wasn’t super happy with the car in practice yesterday, so we made some good changes overnight and it felt better in quali this morning, but I had to bail out of my fastest lap with a red flag so we started 10th. I got an okay start, just didn’t have anywhere to go and couldn’t really pass anyone so we were a bit stuck, then I was just lapping a Super3 car he turned down into me, plucked the left rear corner out of our car and ended our race. It was just silly, and unfortunately it really hurts our championship and makes a late night for the boys, so really frustrating. We’ll get it fixed up for tomorrow and hopefully turn things around for a better finish to the weekend.”
SUPERCARS DRIVERS’ CHAMPIONSHIP
1) Shane van Gisbergen – 908 points
2) Anton De Pasquale – 751
3) Will Davison – 690
7) Cam Waters – 607
12) James Courtney – 483
22) Thomas Randle – 308
24) Jake Kostecki – 291
SUPERCARS TEAMS’ CHAMPIONSHIP
1) Triple Eight Race Engineering – 1525 points
2) Dick Johnson Racing – 1441
3) Tickford Racing (5/6) – 1090
12) Tickford Racing (55/56) – 599
DUNLOP SUPER2 SERIES
1) Matthew Payne – 408 points
2) Thomas Maxwell – 345
3) Declan Fraser – 333
7) Zak Best – 288
Ends.
