Tickford prepared for Pukekohe finale in NZ return
September 8, 2022
Triple podium, thrilling battles for Waters in Pukekohe
September 11, 2022TICKFORD RACING – AUCKLAND SUPERSPRINT SATURDAY REPORT
10 September, 2022
Claiming his 10th podium of the 2022 Supercars season, Cam Waters (No. 50 Monster Energy Ford Mustang) finished third in Saturday’s Race 27 at Pukekohe Park Raceway, the opening race of the Auckland SuperSprint in Supercars’ return to New Zealand.
Earlier in the day Waters claimed pole position for Race 27, marking the 100th pole in Tickford Racing’s history. It was also Waters’ eighth pole of the current campaign.
Thomas Randle’s (No. 55 Castrol Racing Ford Mustang) race ran relatively clean, with the rookie driver starting from 16th after a frustrating qualifying, pitting early in the race, and avoiding dramas for several drivers around him en route to a 16th place finish.
It was a bruising afternoon for James Courtney (No. 5 Snowy River Caravans Ford Mustang), who found himself sandwiched in Turn 1 on Lap 1 as part of a four-wide battle for real estate, causing damage to the front end of his Mustang. Soon after, Courtney was rear-ended in a pit lane traffic jam on Lap 6, and managed the damage to his car for the remainder of the 41-lap race, ultimately finishing 18th.
That same pit lane incident also involved Jake Kostecki (No. 56 Tradie Ford Mustang), who was exiting his box as Courtney was attempting to enter his, forcing Courtney to stop and be hit from behind. At the same time, Kostecki was released with a loose left rear tyre, which came off of the car in pit lane, Kostecki forced to stop near pit exit. The 22-year old lost four laps while the crew retrieved the car and put a fresh tyre on, and was classified 21st in Race 27.
The Auckland SuperSprint continues on Sunday with Race 28 and 29 qualifying beginning from 10:45 a.m. NZST, followed by Race 28 at 12:55 p.m. and Race 29 at 4:10.
DRIVERS’ VIEW
No. 5 Snowy River Caravans Ford Mustang
James Courtney
Practice 2: 1m02.86s, 21st
Race 27 Quali: 1m02.53s (Q3), 10th
Race 27 Finish: 18th
“Today was pretty crazy. I’m far more used to being the bread than the meat in the sandwich, so it was pretty wild to be caught up in two of those incidents. Lap 1 was fairly clear cut, four cars into Turn 1 will almost never work and unfortunately Sladey (Tim Slade) and I copped the worst of it. I had a mad tyre rub but eventually it cleared and we pressed on at the back, but the tyre was pretty second-hand so we made the call to pit on Lap 6. I saw Jake was in for his stop and he dropped right as I was approaching, so I pulled up to let him get out and Brodie (Kostecki) drilled me from behind. It was a clunky old exchange but we got back out and continued on and basically just survived to the end. Certainly not the result we wanted after qualifying in the 10, but we did find some speed in the car today which was positive, hopefully we can put it all together tomorrow.”
No. 50 Monster Energy Ford Mustang
Cam Waters
Practice 2: 1m02.35s, 7th
Race 27 Quali: 1m01.99s (Q3), 1st
Race 27 Finish: 3rd
“I guess it’s a good thing to be disappointed with third, but yeah, I’m a little disappointed. Getting pole this morning was awesome, it was a good lap and to tick off Tickford’s 100th pole is pretty cool. Unfortunately in the race I got a bad start, it felt like we sat there for a long time and I didn’t have my procedure where I needed it, but it’s the same for everyone and obviously other guys got a good start so it is what it is. It’s still always good to spray champagne on the podium, and the car’s solid, so we’ll tune it up tonight and try to go a couple better tomorrow.”
No. 55 Castrol Racing Ford Mustang
Thomas Randle
Practice 2:1m02.59s, 12th
Race 27 Quali: 1m02.55s, 16th
Race 27 Finish: 16th
“Start 16th, finish 16th, yeah it was just a pretty unremarkable race for us. I was pretty frustrated after qualifying, we had a car good enough to make the 10 but I ran wide at the last corner during my last run in Q2, we were doing two laps and obviously that screwed up the end of my first lap and the start of my second, so a bit of a double whammy there. Then the race was just straightforward, we made an early stop and unfortunately it didn’t really do too much. We’ll live and learn, fortunately we have a quick car and two more cracks tomorrow, hopefully we get the chance to properly show it.”
No. 56 Tradie Ford Mustang
Jake Kostecki
Practice 2: 1m02.76s, 19th
Race 27 Quali: 1m02.42s, 13th
Race 27 Finish: 21st
“We struggled a bit in practice this morning, so we felt okay being within a whisker of the 10 in qualifying, it’s a shame we couldn’t put it to use in the race. We were running around in 12th or 13th when we came in, and unfortunately the left rear just wasn’t done up enough when I was dropped and just came off as soon as I left the box. We had the pace to nudge the top 10 today, so it’s obviously pretty disappointing to lose it like that. We’ll regroup and go again tomorrow, and we’ll look to show a bit more speed and put together a good day.”
Tim Edwards, Team Principal
“It wasn’t the day we were hoping for, to be honest, we had good speed across all of our cars but we made too many mistakes, and of course JC got squeezed at the start, it turned what could have been a pretty good day into a pretty frustrating one. Obviously Cam still got on the podium so it’s not all doom and gloom, but we have plenty to tidy up for tomorrow. The silver lining is we have qualifying and two more races, and we have fast cars, so we’ll dig in tonight and look to put together a strong Sunday.”
SUPERCARS DRIVERS’ CHAMPIONSHIP
1) Shane van Gisbergen – 2572 points
2) Cam Waters – 2079
3) Will Davison – 2074
10) James Courtney – 1383
20) Thomas Randle – 911
23) Jake Kostecki – 835
SUPERCARS TEAMS’ CHAMPIONSHIP
1) Triple Eight Race Engineering – 4284 points
2) Dick Johnson Racing – 4113
3) Tickford Racing (5/6) – 3462
10) Tickford Racing (55/56) – 1746
Ends.
