Waters carries on dominance amid BRT blunder
By Thomas Miles
Date posted: 22 February 2025
There is still no stopping Cameron Waters as he blazed to provisional pole in a crazy Saturday Qualifying session at Sydney.
The two-part session that decided who will participate in the Top 10 Shootout was defined by the Blanchard Racing Team teammates colliding coming out of pit exit.
Despite the “unacceptable” clash Waters continued his dominance by being the only 1m28s lap in Qualifying 2.
The Friday night winner enjoyed a 0.2187s margin over Broc Feeney and Matt Payne in overcast, but warm conditions.
The likes of Chaz Mostert, Will Brown, Thomas Randle, Andre Heimgartner, Bryce Fullwood, Ryan Wood and Cameron Hill also booked tickets to the Shootout.
But some big names missed out including Nick Percat (P11) Will Davison (P13) and Brodie Kostecki (P16).
A confident Waters said the key has been the #6 Mustang’s ability to adapt to all conditions.
“We are paying attention to the conditions and it affects the car so much,” he said.
“I am lucky the car has been really good in all different conditions so far.”
Qualifying 1
Q1 was interrupted even before laps could even be posted after an unbelievable tangle between the BRT teammates.
Amid a communication breakdown Love and Courtney tripped over each other at pit exit.
Whilst Love went out first, he veered left to warm up his tyres, creating a gap for Courtney to go past.
But the rookie then swung back towards the inside of the circuit and straight into the path of the #7.
Heavy side-on contact was made between the teammates, destroying the right rear wheel of Courtney, who was stuck on the infield and experienced a lonely walk back to the garage.
When the session resumed, there was nothing in it after the opening flyers.
Waters again continued his stranglehold on P1 but his margin was much tighter with Kostecki just 0.0056s away.
Payne was also within a tenth, while Davison impressed to be fourth ahead of Feeney and Fullwood as just two tenths covered the top 12.
The likes of Mostert, Wood and Hill kept their powder dry and waited until the end of the session to go for it.
It proved pivotal as Mostert became the first to knock off Waters from the top by 0.0475s with a 1:29.4272.
Not only that but teammate Wood and Hill also pushed their way into the 10, while Jack Le Brocq (P19) David Reynolds (P20) Cooper Murray (P21) and Kai Allen (P23) were the big names knocked out.
Love did get back out, but was more than a second off the pace in his unaligned #3 Mustang.
Qualifying 2
Again the Monster Mustang was on fire, being the only car to record a 1m28s time in the opening minutes of Q2.
Waters 1:28.8998 two tenths clear of Feeney, while Payne and Mostert were the best part of half a second adrift.
The aim was to get into the top 10 with Hill on the bubble ahead of Davison, Golding and Kostecki.
Neither Percat, De Pasquale or Evans set a lap in anger and were the only cars to have a crack at the end of the session.
The Team 18 driver ran slightly wide at Turn 2 and this meant he could only mange 13th.
Both Percat and Evans provided a much greater threat to Hill, but they also fell sort.
They took turns in 11th with Percat edging out Evans, but being 0.02s short of the important top 10 shootout.
The one-lap dash for pole will be at 16.35 AEDT.
Image: DMAC Photography
Supercars Round 1 Sydney 500 Race 2 Qualifying results
2025 Sydney 500
Practice 1: A. De Pasquale 1:30.0226 2: D. Reynolds +0.4742 3: J. Courtney +0.5039
Qualifying 1: C. Waters 1:28.6968 2: B. Feeney +0.2544 3: M. Payne +0.4559
Race 1: C. Waters 2: C. Mostert 3: T. Randle
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