WAU one-two gives Holden its fairytale
Holden has achieved part 1 of it’s fairytale finish with one-two at the VALO Adelaide 500, as WAU’s Chaz Mostert won over Nick Percat in incident packed Race 33.
James Courtney managed to round out the podium spots, as Waters and Pye had their chances dashed during a hectic late period of yellow flags.
Race 33 Got underway in the second last race of the 2022 season, with Cam Waters on his tenth pole of the year next to hometown hero Scott Pye in the Team 18 Commodore.
Anton De Pasquale and James Courtney filled the second row, with the season champion in Shane van Gisbergen starting from the back of the grid after a poor qualifying.
Waters just got Pye into turn 1with a clean start across the field, with van Gisbergen taking four spots early into P21.
Scott Pye and Cameron Waters line up on the front row ahead of the start of the returning race to the streets of Adelaide. Image: Mark Horsburgh/EDGE Photographics
The front of the field stayed tight with the biggest split being in the mid field as van Gisbergen charged into the gap and moved into P16, +1.171 behind Le Brocq as the pit stop window opened on lap 6 with Percat taking the option to find clean air.
Lee Holdsworth found himself in the top 10 in his second last race, moving into P8 over Davison and Reynolds.
Van Gisbergen moved into P12 but sat 14 and half seconds off the leader in Waters with a 1.342 gap to Pye as the front runners started putting out some serious pace.
Golding went into the pits and didn’t come out with steering system damage, as PremiAir looked to reboot the #31 for tomorrow’s Race 34.
De Pasquale and Courtney swapped spots for P3 a few times before pitting, whilst van Gisbergen crept into P7 as Reynolds locked up and lost spots after running well following his pit stop.
Scott Pye looked set for a magical home town win, but it was not to be. Image: Mark Horsburgh/EDGE Photographics
Waters put it out to 2.188 by lap 22, with half the field still out and van Gisbergen in P5 but 18s back, with Pye then pitting from P2 on lap 25, coming out with a comfortable gap on De Pasquale.
Waters followed suit with a 16s stop, coming out with a three second advantage to Pye, with van Gisbergen at the front of the field without a pit.
Waters hit the fence on turn 11 in a hairy moment which put Pye on his tail, with Pye then also having a wobble into the final corner to lose the advantage.
Van Gisbergen was the last car to pit to get a 70L refill, and re-entered in P11 behind Hazelwood and B.Kostecki, with a future 5 second pit advantage on Waters who was carrying a smaller fuel load.
Pye got a track limit warning as he stayed on the heels of the #6 Tickford Mustang.
Shane van Gisbergen had a disastrous first day racing with the #1. Image: Mark Horsburgh/EDGE Photographics
Le Brocq then went off on the problematic turn 11 to bring out a safety car at a vital time in the race, bringing out a fuel strategy aspect which would define the eventual victor.
The lap 41 restart had van Gisbergen running wide, dropping him into P21 after touching with Mostert.
PremiAir’s Chris Pither had assumed the lead over Holdsworth (1 stop each) and Waters in the safety car pit shuffle, with Pye in P4, only +0.387 in arrears, with Holdsworth then taking P1 and Pither heading in.
Waters then took Holdsworth for P1 and tried to take advantage of the gap to Pye, with both needing one more pit for fuel with 29 laps remaining.
Another safety car was called due to turn 11 with van Gisbergen hitting the wall and messing up the front of his car. Waters and Pye both got fuel, with Pye almost getting Waters in the pitlane with the #6 coming out in P9.
Mostert took P1 as another safety was called after Hazelwood and Brown made contact in what was becoming a crazy race. Waters tapped Hazelwood which caused the crash, with Brown getting caught up, and Waters in the sights of race control.
That played into Mostert’s hands with a quick car, able to save fuel under the yellow flag, with what was effectively going to be a sprint to the line, with Heimgartner and Percat – up 17 spots – in P3.
The green flag came with 23 laps remaining, with Percat taking P2 on a Heimgartner error in a tight field, with Waters getting a drive through penalty for the earlier contact, making things hard for the pole getter in P18.
Heimgartner kept dropping spots as Pye and Fullwood ran off, with Pye dropping onto P17 then the pits with no power steering and an oil fire..
Mostert looked good with 16 laps left and a +2s gap over Percat, Courtney, and B.Kostecki, with the WAU Holden’s holding the historic one-two.
The front three looked settled with 9 laps remaining, with Courtney on the tail of Percat for P2 but carrying his full allotment of kerb strikes.
It finished up as such, with WAU getting its first one-two in Adelaide, and pulls to within one victory of Triple Eight Engineering as the team with the most Holden affiliated wins.
Race 33 Top Ten
- Mostert. 01:55:59
- Percat +1.979
- Courtney +2.695
- B. Kostecki +4.496
- Slade +5.762
- Winterbottom +7.942
- Davison +13.257
- Feeney +14.291
- Heimgartner +15.644
- Holdsworth +16.197
Sunday, December 4
11.00-11.15 Supercars Qualifying
12.05-12.35 Supercars Top 10 Shootout
14.45-16.45 Supercars Race 34 (78 laps)
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