What the Supercars teams said – Race 1
A new Supercars season is already underway with Cameron Waters taking a crushing victory at Sydney Motorsport Park.
For the first time a Friday night race hosted the season opener on Australian soil and it was one for the Ford fans as the dominant Waters led a Mustang top four.
Tickford: P1 Cam Waters P3 Thomas Randle
Image: Peter Norton
Tickford enjoyed its most dominant start to a season ever with Waters being untouchable from pole, winning by a huge 16s while Randle pulled off a last-lap move to steal third from Payne.
“Last year I had wheels falling off and I was feeling crook, so that was pretty bad,” Waters said.
“It is awesome to start the championship like that and massive thank you to the whole team
Great to get the first win.
“It is just one race, but it is great to have fast cars tonight and Thomas to also be on the podium. We got to make sure we keep on moving.”
“It was pretty intense across those last three laps with Matt and he put up a great defence and it came down to the last lap,” Randle said.
“I was just trying to think where I could get the job done. To get the double podium in the first race of the year is brilliant, the team has not had a start like this in a long time.”
WAU: P2 Chaz Mostert P11 Ryan Wood
Image: Peter Norton
Mostert fought hard in the #25 WAU Mustang, having got his elbows out at the start, a four-tyre stop propelled the #25 to second, while Wood just slipped outside the top 10.
“Did not expect that for sure and even in the race we did not have the best balance,” Mostert said.
“We stuck to our strategy and ran a bit longer to have some more tyres but did not think those last few laps we would get Matt, he was the man of the match today and just missed out of the trophy. They still had some amazing car speed with just two tyres.”
“Qualifying was really good today, it was nice to be in the top 10, disappointed I didn’t quite piece it together in Part 2 but we have another shot I had some pretty fun battles out there with Will, the Mobil 1 Truck Assist Racing No. 2 didn’t quite have the race pace towards the end of each stint so it was hard to fight at the end there,” Wood said.
Grove Racing P4 Matt Payne P19 Kai Allen
Image: DMAC
Payne fought valiantly despite only taking two tyres and came extremely close to a podium, only to lose it on the final lap, but was labelled as “man of the match” from Mostert. Rookie Allen wowed in qualifying, getting it to the top 10, but a poor start restricted him to 19th.
“Wow, what a race. We were on two tyres racing against people on four tyres and we almost got there. Third on the last lap and just lost it at the end. Pretty gutted,” Payne said.
“Day 1 done. Started off really good but I stuffed the start up. Could not quite get it right. Tried to get some clean air and chip away and car was really good towards the end. Positive day,” Allen said.
Triple Eight: P5 Will Brown P14 Broc Feeney
Image: Supplied
Triple Eight did not have a good day, but still led the Camaros with Will Brown rising from 11th to fifth in fine style. Feeney looked set for second only for a flat tyre to restrict him to 14th.
“I had a good start. My first lap wasn’t too bad. We sort of got in a really big battle with Ryan Wood and it was great racing, but unfortunately that hurts tyres. . But overall, we did a really good strategy. We put four tyres on in the stop and was able to come back through the field and finish fifth. So, for a very tough night like tonight, it’s a great recovery by the team,” Brown said.
“Unfortunately, on the lap that we were pitting, I had a slide and caught the edge at turn three and there’s a 30 centimetre drop off there and got a puncture. So, we went back to last, and got back to 14th. I’m pretty obviously gutted it was just a stupid mistake, but it’s just such a fine line out there. So anyway, I made a mistake, and I think we are the second-best car, but we’ve got a long way to go to catch Cam,” Feeney said.
DJR: P6 Brodie Kostecki P21 Will Davison
Image: DMAC
Kostecki showed promise in his first race for DJR and battled for a podium, but the gamble to pit earliest on Lap 5 did not pay off and dropped out of top five. Meanwhile, Davison struggled all day and was a distant 21st.
BJR: P7 Andre Heimgartner P9 Bryce Fullwood P16 Jaxon Evans P20 Macauley Jones
Image: DMAC
Solid day for BJR with all four cars gaining ground in the race led by Heimgartner, who stayed out the longest of them all and used fresh tyres to gain five spots to salvage seventh, while Fullwood also had a good day.
“A solid of the day for our team. Really happy coming out with seventh. The car wasn’t ideal in the race but had a good strategy and managed to claw it back so really happy with that,” Heimgartner said.
The weekend’s been really good for us so far. We started off ninth which was really cool, and then we ended the race in ninth as well after some dramas in pitlane with other cars. I think car speed was really quite good and the potential was good.,” Fullwood said.
“A bit of a disappointing start to the day. Qualifying was pretty rough for us. I had a good start, did all things racing for quite some time. Pitted and I felt like we had a decent strategy, it just meant we had to fight forward.,” Jones said.
Qualifying, I was probably on for a decent lap like I’m sure many other people were but found that there was an issue with the brakes. he guys had the fastest pit stop in the lane, so it felt pretty special. I jumped a couple cars and ended up finishing 16th. All in all, not a bad day,” Evans said.
Team 18 P8 Anton De Pasquale P15 David Reynolds
Image: DMAC
After a 1-2 in practice Team 18 would have been disappointed with quail, but De Pasquale put in a storming drive from 15th to eighth, while Reynolds crept to 15th.
The race itself was really positive—we had an awesome strategy and an amazing pit stop from the crew, which set us up for a strong undercut. The car looked after its tyres well, and we made up good ground to finish inside the top ten. Hopefully, we can keep building on that tomorrow.” De Pasquale said.
“I got a reasonable start and spent the first few laps trying to get past Will [Davison], but he settled in and found his pace again. I just found my tyre degradation a little higher than expected, which made things tricky in the second half.” Reynolds said.
Erebus: P9 Jack Le Brocq P18 Cooper Murray
Image: DMAC
Erebus was searching for pace during the day but Le Brocq enjoyed a promising race, rising from 13th to ninth, while Murray battled deep in the pack on debut, but led the rookies.
MSR: P12 Nick Percat P13 Cam Hill P25 Cam Crick
Image: Supplied
Percat stayed out of trouble and pitted late to be just outside the top 10 and was followed home by Hill, who raced hard and even found the dirt off the start line. Wildcard Crick got as high as seventh during the stops but lost out to Love late in the piece.
“It was a bit uneventful. Kind of kept my nose clean, tried to look after the tyre a bit and hoped to get through a few late in the race but just didn’t quite have the speed to clear Woody and Le Brocq. A little bit uneventful from Car #10,” Percat said.
“It was a pretty fast-paced race. We got a decent start but had to go around Kai Allen and we lost a couple of spots being hung out on the outside. From there we were probably just a bit too conservative with our strategy,” Hill said
“The race was pretty good for us; the car felt good, especially compared to the cars around me. Early in the race my air vent came out and was like flapping in front of my eyes and it was really putting me off,” Crick said.
BRT: P17 James Courtney P24 Aaron Love
Image: DMAC
Courtney started his farewell tour on home soil in solid fashion, gaining four spots, while Love won a battle with wildcard Crick to not be last.
PremiAir: P22 James Golding P23 Richie Stanaway
Image: Peter Norton
It was not PremiAir’s day with Golding looking destined for Q2 only to run into Jones at the end of his lap. As a result both PremiAir cars struggled near the back and had an almighty scrap rubbing doors albeit only for 22nd.
“It was not the best day for us. We had a fast car in qualifying, and I was on a really good lap there, until we got held up by some traffic which unfortunately saw us start off the back of the grid which made our life a bit difficult,” Golding said.
“For the first race of the season, it was a disappointing day for us. We didn’t quite maximise our qualifying, which put us down the order, and then we had a bit of a messy race,” Stanaway said.
All teams will pour through the data to discover more about the new tyre ahead of the longer 200km Saturday night race.
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
READ THE LATEST ISSUE OF AUTO ACTION HERE
Don’t forget the print edition of Auto Action available via subscription here. For more of the latest motorsport news, subscribe to AUTO ACTION magazine.
