Waters too good again

The Sydney sweep is still on for Cameron Waters after he claimed back to back poles in the opening Top 10 Shootout of the season.

Despite Broc Feeney and Chaz Mostert throwing down the gauntlet, Waters remained in a league of his own in the one-lap dash.

 The green-eyed monster set a 1:29.1362 to take another comfortable pole by two tenths.

Feeney fired a grand final sector to snare best of the rest once again ahead of Mostert and Randle.

The sun dipped in and out during the session and despite not having the best of conditions, the #6 Tickford Racing Mustang carried on dominating.

“I knew I had a fast car and could not make any mistakes,” Waters said.

Below is how all 10 drivers took on the first Shootout of 2025.

P9 Cameron Hill 1:29.7645

Hill started the lap well and did not go too wide around Turn 2.

After finding his feet in the opening sequence of corners, he found his rhythm and was only two tenths off his qualifying effort.

“I did not make the best start to the lap, but from sector two onwards it was pretty decent

P7 Ryan Wood 1:29.8910

Wood was up and about straight away, being three tenths faster in the first sector alone.

He hugged the kerb at the hairpin much tighter than the MSR driver and despite getting some wheel spin with a big slide coming out of the final corner still went faster by a tenth.

However, he would have lamented the last corner moment.

“Lap was not too bad by messing it up coming onto the straight. Car feeling good,” Wood said.

P10 Bryce Fullwood 1:30.0573

Fullwood marked his 150th race with a Shootout appearance.

He used all the road through Turn 1 and went deep through the following hairpin where he used the exit well.

A small hint of understeer proved costly at the Turn 8 hairpin and used all of the exit kerb coming onto the main straight, but could not beat any of the previous runners with a time six tenths slower than his quali lap.

“Not that clean if I am honest. Conditions are changing a fair bit. Pretty loose would be the assessment,” Fullwood said.

P8 Andre Heimgartner 1:29.8846

Heimgartner went for it early on and had a snap coming out of Turn 3, but carried on.

With no track limits dramas the Kiwi used all of the run off exiting Turn 5 to be just under two tenths down from the second split.

He found a bit more time in the final sector to settle in just behind Wood.

Heimgartner said he “didn’t get things quite right” experiencing both understeer and oversteer during the lap.

P4 Thomas Randle 1:29.4006

With no sun shining, Randle took Turn 2 well and slowed nicely in the first sector to be a tenth up on Wood at the opening split.

Had a bobble on exit of Turn 6 but the little slide actually helped as he gained time throughout the lap.

Placed the car nicely across all of the kerbs to go well clear of the rest of the field.

Impressively Randle even eclipsed his qualifying effort to lay a marker.

“Don’t know of the track might be getting slightly better but lets see what we can do

P5 Will Brown 1:29.5832

Brown again enjoyed cloud cover but lost significant time through the first two corners.

But the #1 flew around Corporate Hill to comfortably record the fastest second split.

However, the pace was not there at the end of the lap and Brown slotted behind Randle.

“That really hurt and I was three tenths down on my 1m29.4 just after turn 2, so that really hurt us

P3 Chaz Mostert 1:29.3997

The sun had returned by the time Mostert started his lap, however, this did not stop him from effectively matching Randle in the opening sector.

He flowed the car well in the second where he found a tenth on the #55.

A stable exit using all of the final kerb but none of the grass proved to be a master stroke as the #25 snuck ahead of Randle by a meagre 0.0009s.

“Get that up ya Thomas! The sector times said I was down, so I had a big crack in that last sector and it paid off,” Mostert said of another lap that was faster than qualifying.

P6 Matt Payne 1:29.7102

Payne had a clean opening lap, but struggled in the second sector where he lost two tenths.

Ended up fourth at the time, three tenths off Mostert and two tenths behind Brown.

Little bit tricky and did not quite get the right balance. Struggled early in the lap with a little bit of understeer

P2 Broc Feeney 1:29.3630

Feeney pushed hard off the bat, being just 0.009s off in the first split.

Used a lot of kerb coming out of Corporate Hill as he maintained pace compared to the leading cars.

Feeney flew in the final sector however, where he gained almost two tenths alone.

From nowhere the #88 stole the lead by 0.0367s over Mostert, but would it be enough to fend off Waters?

“My first corner was not so good so I had to make it work. I am chuffed,” he said.

P1 Cam Waters 1:29.1362

Waters was on it, smashing the first sector by well over two tenths and the car was so balanced he did not need to use too much of the run off at Turn 5.

Despite being slightly wide at the hairpin and jumping sideways slightly at the final turn, the Monster Mustang was yet again a cut above the rest.

The longer 200km Saturday night affair awaits at 19.30 AEDT.

Image: Supplied