Australian Clutch Services returns with Tickford Racing
March 26, 2022
New ride stateside: Waters heads to America in 2023
April 1, 2022
TICKFORD RACING – TASMANIA SUPERSPRINT SATURDAY REPORT
26 March, 2022
Monster Energy Racing’s Cam Waters (No. 6 Monster Energy Ford Mustang) has scored his first pole and podium of the 2022 Supercars season, starting first and finishing third in Race 3 on Saturday at the Tasmania SuperSprint. The result is Waters’ 29th career podium finish and first at Symmons Plains International Raceway, following his 10th career pole taken on early Saturday afternoon.
James Courtney (No. 5 Opposite Lock Ford Mustang) qualified sixth for Saturday’s race, his best of the young 2022 season, but struggled for pace in Race 3 following contact with another car that slightly hindered his No. 5 Mustang across the 44-lap race. Despite the limitation, Courtney managed a 12th place finish and remains 11th in the Supercars drivers’ championship through three races.
A challenging morning for Jake Kostecki (No. 56 Tradie Ford Mustang) gained some solace in Saturday’s Race 3, where the 22-year old recovered from a difficult qualifying to climb 10 spots and finish 14th in the first race of the weekend.
After qualifying 14th on Saturday, Thomas Randle’s (No. 55 Castrol Racing Ford Mustang) Race 3 took a major hit in the race’s opening laps, with the rookie suffering a punctured tyre on the second lap of the race and taking him out of contention for a solid result. Randle finished 22nd in Race 3, but is confident in his car pace ahead of Sunday’s action.
The Tasmania SuperSprint concludes on Sunday with qualifying for Races 4 and 5 beginning at 10:35 a.m. AEDT, with Race 4 beginning at 1:00 p.m. and Race 5 at 3:55 p.m.
DRIVERS’ VIEW
No. 5 Opposite Lock Ford Mustang
James Courtney
Practice 1: 50.56s, 4th
Practice 2: 50.88s, 15th
Race 3 Quali: 50.71s (Q3), 6th
Race 3 Finish: 12th
“Our day was okay, nothing spectacular but at the same time it wasn’t horrible. We qualified sixth which wasn’t too bad, and in the race I got a great start but got pushed wide off the track and lost a few positions. I think we ended up with some damage from that and we had to carry it through the race, so the thing was quite a handful but we managed to keep it on the black stuff and bring the Opposite Lock Mustang home in 12th. It’s better than 13th but worse than 11th, so the boys will have a look at the car to find out what the drama was, and we’ll tune her up for tomorrow.”
No. 6 Monster Energy Ford Mustang
Cam Waters
Practice 1: 50.56s, 3rd
Practice 2: 50.88s, 14th
Race 3 Quali: 50.54s (Q3), 1st
Race 3 Finish: 3rd
“Today was pretty good for us, I didn’t think I put the best quali lap in so I was a bit surprised to get pole, and to back it up with a podium, it’s not the trophy we want but it was nice to spray the boys with champagne. Third’s pretty good, definitely better than last year but we still have a bit of work to do. The boys will have a look at it overnight, tune it up, and we’ll try and go a couple better tomorrow.”
No. 55 Castrol Racing Ford Mustang
Thomas Randle
Practice 1: 51.04s, 19th
Practice 2: 51.04s, 21st
Race 3 Quali: 50.89s (Q2), 14th
Race 3 Finish: 22nd
“It was a bit of a disappointing day today for us. We qualified 14th which I was pretty happy with and in the race I got a good start and was up to 13th or 12th, but then it all came undone pretty quickly. I made a move into the hairpin on – I think it was Jack Le Brocq – and we must have made contact in just the wrong way and I had a puncture straight away. That put me a lap down and ruined our race, so like I said, disappointing, but it’s only Saturday. Fortunately we have two more races tomorrow, so hopefully we can have no punctures and score a couple of good results.”
No. 56 Tradie Ford Mustang
Jake Kostecki
Practice 1: 51.33s, 22nd
Practice 2: 51.68s, 25th
Race 3 Quali: 51.12s (Q1), 24th
Race 3 Finish: 14th
“We definitely struggled in practice, we had some little issues in Practice 1 and an electrical drama in Practice 2 so we didn’t get many laps in, and because of that we weren’t able to maximise qualifying and ended up on the back of the grid. We made some tune ups for the race and the car was a lot better, and we made up 10 spots to get to 14th which was positive. We’re still tuning, but if we start tomorrow with a better qualifying we can finish the weekend strong, so we’ll keep working hard and have another go tomorrow.”
Tim Edwards, Team Principal
“I think if you compare with our race here last year, we’ve definitely made an improvement which is good. Obviously we’re still chasing a bit of race pace but it was good for Cam to finally get on the podium here, and Jake picking up 10 spots was a very good sign as well. JC felt like his car was wounded in the race and Thomas obviously had the puncture which was disappointing, but both of their cars were strong in qualifying and that gives us some confidence that we can have a pretty strong Sunday. Certainly qualifying up front will be important, and avoiding the chaos on track too, but if we can put it all together tomorrow we’ll hopefully leave this weekend as happy campers.”
SUPERCARS DRIVERS’ CHAMPIONSHIP
1) Shane van Gisbergen – 352 points
2) Anton de Pasquale – 335
3) Brodie Kostecki – 329
6) Cam Waters – 278
11) James Courtney – 178
19) Thomas Randle – 134
21) Jake Kostecki – 123
SUPERCARS TEAMS’ CHAMPIONSHIP
1) Dick Johnson Racing – 643 points
2) Triple Eight Race Engineering – 582
3) Erebus Motorsport – 559
5) Tickford Racing (5/6) – 456
10) Tickford Racing (55/56) – 257
Ends.
