Supercars News: Water pips teammate for Sydney night race pole
Cam Waters led an all-Tickford Racing front row for the Panasonic Air Conditioning Sydney SuperNight opener, as he beat teammate Thomas Randle to pole by 0.0134s.
A thrilling fight for pole eventually boiled down to a battle between the two Tickford drivers under lights in Sydney.
In the end, a supreme middle sector delivered Waters a fifth pole of the season and 27th for his career, with Chaz Mostert and Anton De Pasquale completing a top four lockout for Ford.
Remarkably, the top four drivers were covered by just 0.0852s, with Broc Feeney the lead Chevrolet in fifth.
Waters, Mostert and Feeney are armed with another chance to take more points off championship leader Will Brown, who was only eighth.
Matt Payne, meanwhile, will start 10th after the Penrite Racing driver suffered a spin towards the end of his lap.
David Reynolds opened proceedings with a 1:30.8789s, before De Pasquale put 0.9275s on the Team 18 veteran with a 1:29.9514s.
Championship leader Brown went next and turned in a 1:30.5313s, which was 0.5799s down on De Pasquale’s time.
Payne laid down the fastest first sector and loomed to jump to the top, but missed the apex completely at Turn 10, sending the Penrite Ford into a wild spin.
Will Davison was also unable to unseat De Pasquale, with the two-time Bathurst winner making it a Shell V-Power one-two with a 1:30.1932s.
Randle went 0.08s quicker in the first sector, but was 0.03s down on De Pasquale’s sector benchmark. Randle finished off the lap with a 1:29.8796s, which was just 0.0718s faster.
Percat slotted into fourth with a 1:30.4235s, behind Randle and the Shell Fords, leaving just Mostert, Feeney and Waters between Randle and a second career pole.
Mostert clawed back time over the duration of his 1:29.9155s, but was still behind Randle, albeit by 0.0359s.
Feeney didn’t go faster either, with the #88 slotting into fourth with a 1:30.0769s.
Waters set off after a fifth Boost Mobile Pole of the season, but was 0.03s down on Randle at the first sector. However, Waters pieced together a superb mid-sector en route to a 1:29.8662s.
Starting Lineup
POS | NO. | DRIVER | TEAM | TIME | GAP |
1 | 6 | C. Waters | Monster Castrol Racing | 1:29.866 | +0.000 |
2 | 55 | T. Randle | Monster Castrol Racing | 1:29.880 | +0.013 |
3 | 25 | Mostert | Mobil 1 Truck Assist Racing | 1:29.916 | +0.049 |
4 | 11 | A. de Pasquale | Shell V-Power Racing Team | 1:29.951 | +0.085 |
5 | 88 | B. Feeney | Red Bull Ampol Racing | 1:30.077 | +0.211 |
6 | 17 | Davison | Shell V-Power Racing Team | 1:30.193 | +0.327 |
7 | 10 | Percat | Tyrepower Racing | 1:30.424 | +0.557 |
8 | 87 | W. Brown | Red Bull Ampol Racing | 1:30.531 | +0.665 |
9 | 20 | Reynolds | Tradie Beer Racing | 1:30.879 | +1.013 |
10 | 19 | M. Payne | Penrite Racing | 1:40.108 | +10.242 |
11 | 8 | Heimgartner | R&J Batteries Racing | 1:30.460 | +0.618 |
12 | 31 | J. Golding | PremiAir Nulon Racing | 1:30.464 | +0.621 |
13 | 23 | Slade | PremiAir Nulon Racing | 1:30.514 | +0.672 |
14 | 2 | R. Wood | Mobil 1 Truck Assist Racing | 1:30.552 | +0.709 |
15 | 18 | Winterbottom | Tradie Beer Racing | 1:30.591 | +0.749 |
16 | 96 | M. Jones | SCT Motorsport | 1:30.594 | +0.751 |
17 | 14 | B. Fullwood | R&J Batteries Racing | 1:30.594 | +0.751 |
18 | 1 | B. Kostecki | Erebus Motorsport | 1:30.648 | +0.806 |
19 | 4 | C. Hill | Tyrepower Racing | 1:30.743 | +0.901 |
20 | 9 | J. Le Brocq | Erebus Motorsport | 1:30.843 | +1.001 |
21 | 26 | R. Stanaway | Penrite Racing | 1:30.925 | +1.083 |
22 | 12 | J. Evans | SCT Motorsport | 1:30.980 | +1.138 |
23 | 5 | L. Dalton | Tickford Racing 2 | 1:31.386 | +1.544 |
24 | 7 | Courtney | Snowy River Racing | 1:31.472 | +1.630 |
25 | 3 | A. Love | Snowy River Racing | 1:31.929 | +2.087 |