Waters wins a wild one

Cameron Waters cruised to a maiden Tasmanian victory, but there was plenty of action behind him in a crazy final sprint of the 2024 Supercars season.

After beating teammate Thomas Randle on the opening lap, there was no stopping Waters as he cruised to a 6.3s success, which was Tickford’s first at Symmons Plains since 2012, over Will Brown and Bryce Fullwood, who took a first podium in four years.

The 55-lap affair was characterised by a number of incidents. Brodie Kostecki spun David Reynolds before the reigning champion hit the other Team 18 Camaro in the pits, while a pair of rookies tangled in a big way.

Late in the race Randle found himself in squabbles with both Triple Eight Camaros, which led to him locking up and punting Broc Feeney out of the top three. The incident saw the #55 and #88 drivers drop well down the order.

All the drama perfectly sets the scene for the famous Sandown and Bathurst enduros with Brown leading Mostert by 81 points, while the incident means Feeney almost 200 points adrift.

LIGHTS OUT AND ACTION

It was neck and neck between the Tickford teammates and after rubbing doors Randle prevailed on the inside.

However, the #55 threw away the lead with a major mistake at the hairpin, which gifted the lead to Waters, who immediately built a gap of almost a second.

Cameron Hill was a victim of first-lap shenanigans and skated through the kitty litter at the end of the back straight.

Brown snatched third from Reynolds with Kostecki completing the top five with the Erebus driver making good use of the high line through the hairpin to gain three spots.

Their battle carried on for a number of laps with Reynolds, Kostecki and Fullwood making nose to tail contact regularly.

It ended badly with Reynolds being rotated on the exit of the hairpin by Kostecki. With the Team 18 Camaro stuck on the verge, the Safety Car was required.

It threw all strategy plans in the air with the entire field aside from Payne diving into the lane. The #19 ended up pitting a lap later, but that meant he was stuck behind Reynolds, who was stopped on pit exit waiting for the field to pass.

The contested nature led to more drama with Kostecki at the centre of it again as the Erebus crew let the #1 go straight into the path of Mark Winterbottom.

Contact was made, which meant Kostecki stayed in the lane as his team assessed the damage.

When he was able to return to the track, he felt the full wrath of the stewards, firstly receiving a 15s penalty for spinning Reynolds, while he was whacked with two drive throughs for speeding in the pits and an unsafe release.

The race restarted on Lap 12 with the entire field facing the daunting prospect of surviving 48 laps on the same set.

A rapid 2.7s stop enabled Brown to split the two Tickford cars and jump to second as Randle was now under threat from Fullwood, Le Brocq and Feeney, who fought vigorously for the minors.

Before too long a second Safety Car arrived on Lap 20 when a pair of rookies tangled on the pit straight.

Aaron Love and Jaxon Evans were charging across the start-finish line side by side, but the BRT driver appeared to not leave enough room for the #12 as they arrived at Turn 1.

As a result, wheel to wheel contact was made and Evans fired side on into the concrete wall.

Love escaped through the gravel, but Evans was stuck in the sand after the left rear took a big hit.

Both Winterbottom and Hill took the opportunity to dive into the lane and take four fresh tyres.

RACING HARD

Waters put the foot down early in the second restart on Lap 25 and immediately pulled half a second on Brown.

One driver unable to make ground was Payne, who was 17th, but received a drive through for a driving infringement regarding the light at pit exit.

The field had settled down at the second time of asking with Waters pulling a second clear of Brown.

The sister Triple Eight Camaro was on the move however, with Feeney diving down the inside of Le Brocq to steal fifth, but not without contact. A lap later Mostert did the same to secure sixth and relegate the #9 further back.

Feeney soon turned his attention to Fullwood and made an easy and important move to be fourth.

Further up the front of the field Randle and Brown went to war for second spot.

It started at the hairpin where contact jolted the #87 at the apex and allowed Randle to dive underneath.

The pair then bumped their way side by side down the entire back straight.

Randle was able to use the inside line to take second, albeit briefly at Turn 6 as Brown performed the criss-cross.

Another bump at the final corner proved to be the decisive moment as Randle ran off line and slide through the grass and dropped off the podium.

The battle suddenly livened up Feeney, who not only snatched third from a recovering Randle, but was able to apply the blowtorch on teammate Brown.

The three-way battle did not last long however, with Randle carrying way too much speed into the hairpin, locking up and spearing into the rear of Feeney.

The significant contact sent Feeney into a spin and he cried “are you serious” over the radio as he dropped down to 16th. Randle only went down to sixth, but was hit with a 15s post-race penalty.

The biggest beneficiary was Fullwood, who flew to third, while Mostert also shot to fourth. It also allowed Percat and Winterbottom to complete their charges into the top 10.

Whilst the drama occurred behind him, Waters was in cruise control and saluted his first Symmons Plains success in style by performing a massive burnout in the run up to the hairpin.

The final sprint race of the season means it is an open field as teams turn their attention to the iconic enduros of Sandown and Bathurst.

Image: DMAC Photography

Tasmania SuperSprint Supercars Race 18 results

Tasmania SuperSprint schedule

Practice 1: 1: D. Reynolds 51.1376 2: J. Golding +0.1061 3: J. Le Brocq +0.1628

Practice 2: 1: R. Stanaway 54.4551 2: C. Waters +0.0520 3: C. Mostert +0.0716

Qualifying: 1: B. Feeney 50.9884 2: C. Waters +0.0820 3: B. Kostecki +0.0873

Race 17: 1: N. Percat 2: C. Mostert 3: B. Feeney

Practice 3: 1: C. Hill 51.1730 2: B. Feeney +0.0415 3: A. Heimgartner +0.0728

Qualifying: Sun 12.40-13.30

Race 18: Sun 15.05 (55 laps)

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