Waters takes pole award with rapid Adelaide lap

By Thomas Miles

Date posted: 16 November 2024

Cameron Waters has wrapped up the 2024 pole award after smashing the Adelaide 500 Saturday shootout and denying his Tickford teammate.

Waters was the only driver to record a 1m19s lap in the hot one-lap dash.

He was a tenth clear of Randle, while critically Broc Feeney will start two spots ahead of championship leader Will Brown with the Triple Eight teammates third and fifth respectively.

A seventh pole in 2024 saw Waters wrap up the overall pole award, building an unassailable lead over Feeney who has four.

It was an interesting shootout, seeing some new faces in the spotlight, see how they fared.

P8 Bryce Fullwood 1:21.1403 +1.1775

Had a clean run through the chicane and did not use much kerb coming out of Turn 4 after locking the rear wheels on corner entry, but used a lot of them for the remainder of the “Staircase.”

Already certain to get a best Adelaide qualifying, he produced a clean lap to finish up with a 1:21.1403.

“Geez it’s wild times and never a dull moment in our category. there are a lot of leaves out there,” Fullwood said.

P10 Macauley Jones 1:30.9752 +11.0124

Unfortunately Jones’ first Shootout in his 197th start did not go to plan.

On fresh tyres Jones lost it flying down Wakefield Street, having a big lock up and shooting into the run off.

Completed the rest of the lap to be a distant 9s off.

“A little unfortunate. Had a bit of an issue with the brakes this morning and tried to fix it,” Jones said.

P7 Jaxon Evans 1:20.7647 +0.8019

In his first Shootout on his first trip to Adelaide, Evans bolted on green tyres and gained 0.031s on the first split.

But Evans was nice and smooth for the rest of the lap and gained more time across the final two sectors to go 0.3756s faster than Fullwood.

“Pretty happy with it. obviously first time doing one of these and my first laps have not been great so far, so happy to avoid kerb strikes and have a pretty clean lap,” Evans said.

P6 Aaron Love 1:20.7275 +0.7647

BRT rookie Aaron Love had the special chance to do a Shootout for the first time and impressively he set a purple first sector.

On roaded tyres he was 0.082s up before running slightly wide at Turn 7 and grazing the wall with the left rear, however, he still retained his time.

Kept pushing all the way to jump all the BJR Camaros to be the fastest of the session until that point by 0.0372s.

Still ended up sixth and smashed his previous best qualifying.

“There was a bit going on coming into the back straight and probably tried to hustle it through the chicane. Credit to the team who had a bit of work to do after practice,” Love said.

P4 Matt Payne 1:20.1702 +0.2074

Last year’s Adelaide 500 winner went on with roaded fronts and fresh rears and was on it, being two tenths up in the first sector alone.

Left enough space and had good rhythm through Turn 8 and smashed the previous runners.

Completed the mistake-free lap to record a low 1m20s time and ended up half a second clear of Love.

“It did not feel too bad after getting the tyres up,” Payne said.

P9 James Courtney 1:21.3326 +1.3698

In a double delight for BRT, Courtney was also on show and keen to capitalise on early weekend pace.

Flew over Senna Chicane kerb and used all of the road coming out of turns 6 and 7.

Sat around two tenths adrift across the first two sectors, but lost some time by not finding the apex at both the Turn 9 and 14 hairpins.

Ended up falling behind all runners aside from Jones.

“It started out quite well but at the hairpin grabbed a front as soon as I hit the brake then massive push in the second last corner. not a flash one,” Courtney said.

P3 Broc Feeney 1:20.1475 +0.1847

Determined to make ground on his teammate and keep the title fight alive, Feeney flew through the chicane and used all the road through the staircase.

The #88 ran right against the wall at Turn 12 and gained a lot of time through the middle sector to sneak 0.0227s clear of Payne.

“I am a bit disappointed and a messy start to the lap, but I have nothing to lose so will be going for that win,” Feeney said.

P2 Thomas Randle +0.1182

Randle had a strong start the lap and was the best part of two tenths up on the first sector alone.

Was clean through Turns 8 and 9 and took another purple sector to snatch top spot. But it was the final corner where the #55 made the difference.

He was just 0.0665s faster than Feeney with roaded tyres doing the job.

“I just tried to put it all on the line and happy to not get a kerb strike. We have struggled up to this point and it has been a turning point for us,” Radnle said.

P1 Cameron Waters 1:19.9628

On fresh tyres Waters was not quite as fast as his teammate in the first sector, but kept gaining time throughout the lap.

Waters had no room left as he flew through Turn 8 and it was worth it as he beat Randle by an entire tenth and deny his teammate’s dreams again.

“Really happy with that. I was not super happy after practice, but we have got the car better,” Waters said.

P5 Will Brown 1:20.2183 +0.2555

The championship leader was the last out and bounced well over the Senna Chicane kerb.

Wagged the tail through Turn 4 and even slightly caught the grass and was behind both Tickford drivers as the first split.

This proved to be the big moment as Brown could only manage fifth.

“That should have been really good, but I stuffed up the staircase completely,” Brown said.

Image: Peter Norton EPIC Sports Photography

VAILO Adelaide 500 Supercars schedule

Practice 1: 1: J. Courtney 1:19.6835 2: D. Reynolds +0.1553 3: N. Percat +0.3242

Practice 2: 1 D. Reynolds 1:19.4804 2: C. Waters +0.0840 3: C. Mostert +0.1023

Qualifying – 1 W. Brown 1:19.4425 2: C. Waters +0.3631 3: T. Randle +0.4123

Practice 3 – 1 W. Brown 1:19.7649 2 B. Feeney +0.1894 3 T. Randle +0.2517

Top 10 Shootout – Sat 12.35-13.05

Race 23 (78 laps) – Sat 15.20

Qualifying – Sun 10.20-10.35

Top 10 Shootout – Sun 12.35-13.35

Race 24 (78 laps) – Sun 15.15

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