Waters breaks Gen3 pole hoodoo
By Timothy Neal
Date posted: 17 June 2023
Cam Waters has put his #6 Mustang on pole for the first time in a Gen3 Supercar, with a blistering lap in Q3 to share the front row with Broc Feeney.
It was a varied top-ten, with Frosty Winterbottom taking a great P3 next to Shane van Gisbergen, as well as hometown hero Bryce Fullwood making it into P6.
Both PremiAir cars continued a strong all round weeknd for Peter Xiberras and his team, with Tim Slade and Jimmy Golding filling P7 and P8. Golding will be have his spot looked at however for impeding Will Brown in Q2, which if he was to miss, would elevate Kostecki into P10.
Some surprise names fell short of making it out of Q2, with both Erebus cars missing, as well as DJR’s Anton De Pasquale, but the time’s were super tight, as teams tried to conserve the super soft tyres for today’s racing and tomorrow mornings double qualifying.
Both Team 18 cars led by Mark Winterbottom are showing strong speed in Darwin, with Frosty starting Race 1 in P3. Image: Mark Horsbrugh
Knockout qualifying started with a small seven car rollout to begin with, and Golding was the quickest early with a 1:06.483.
No one was rushing out of the sheds as it went under ten minutes, until a sudden burst of activity saw the majority of the field enter the track, including SVG.
The T8 team couldn’t locate the steering issue from yesterday’s practice, so they just replaced what they could in the hope it would solve the problem, and he responded by putting a safe lap in.
The bottom six cut had Mostert in it after his troubles yesterday, with Randle, Payne, Fullwood and Smith all with work to do with three minutes remaining.
Cameron Waters celebrates his first pole of the year with his Tickford team. Image: Mark Horsbrugh
Fullwood went into P5 dropping Fraser into the gun, with Smith also jumping into P14, as Percat and Hazelwood were put in danger.
Waters just scraped into the 20, as a late flurry saw Mostert and De Pasquale jump up the board with the latter going top, as Fraser, Hazelwood, Reynolds, Smith, Jones, and Percat all got the chop.
The second session had the top-ten cut come into play, with Feeney and Waters going up early on a quiet track.
SVG then went top with 1:06.540, before Winterbottom put in a 6.2, whilst Kostecki pushed up with Davison and Le Brocq.
Teams were opting to save tyres as the clock ticked down to three minutes, with Brown desperately needing a flyer along with the likes of De Pasquale and Waters.
Erebus Motorsport’s decision to stay in the pits at the back end of Q2 proved costly for Brodie Kostecki. Image: Mark Horsbrugh
Randle jumped up as did Feeney and Waters, whilst Brown just couldn’t get a clean lap, with the late jumpers pushing out some surprise names in Kostecki and De Pasquale along with Brown.
With Le Brocq, Payne, Heimgartner, Hill, Mostert, Goddard and Courtney all getting the cut as +0.557 split the field.
The top ten shot out saw Feeney pull out a quick and early 6 flat to go top, and it would prove a hard time to beat before Waters put down his blistering 1:05.902 to take his first pole in the Gen3 Mustang, and also Tickford’s first of 2023.
With 1 minute remaining Winterbottom and SVG held the second row, and that’s how it stayed, with Davison and Fullwood on the third row, over Golding, Slade, Pye, and Randle.
David Reynolds was one of the big names knocked out in Q1. Image: Mark Horsbrugh
Saturday, June 17
Race 13 (35 laps): 15.55-16.53
Sunday, June 18
Qualifying (Race 14): 10.00-10.15
Qualifying (Race 15): 10.20-10.35
Race 14 (35 laps): 12.20-13.18
Race 15 (35 laps): 15.55-16.53
For more of the latest motorsport news, pick up the latest issue of AUTO ACTION.
PODCAST: The latest episode of the Auto Action RevLimiter podcast is out now!
In the latest podcast we discuss this weekends Darwin Supercars preview & news, F1 Canada preview, Winton ARG and LeMans 24Hour wrap-up.
AUTO ACTION, Australia’s independent voice of motorsport.
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