WATERS STARTS AND FINISHES P2 IN PUKEKOHE

MEDIA RELEASE/Tickford Racing – Photo: Velocity Magazine

Collecting his sixth podium of 2019, Cameron Waters (No. 6 Monster Energy Ford Mustang) finished second in Saturday’s Race 23 at the Auckland SuperSprint. It is Waters’ tenth career podium and second at Pukekohe Park Raceway. After initially finishing third, Waters was elevated to second following a post-race penalty to Car 88, which finished second.

Waters’ result wasn’t without drama, however. Following his Lap 39 pit stop, Waters and teammate Chaz Mostert (No. 55 Supercheap Auto Ford Mustang) collided at Turn 5, damaging the latter’s right front corner. Waters continued on with no notable damage to his podium finish, while Mostert spent 14 laps in the garage and finished 24^th.

SECURE YOUR COPY OF THE 2019 BATHURST 1000 SOUVENIR MAGAZINE HERE

Despite a slow start, Lee Holdsworth (No. 5 The Bottle-O Ford Mustang) recovered from as low as 12^th to finish fifth after penalties to other cars, elevating him back into the top ten of the championship. Like Waters’, Holdsworth’s result equals a season-best.

After starting third, Will Davison (No. 23 Milwaukee Racing Ford Mustang) finished third, but was relegated to ninth after incurring a 15-second penalty for speeding in the pit lane on his Lap 43 stop. Davison still retains ninth in the championship through 23 races.

Supercars action resumes Sunday with Race 24 qualifying at 11:20 a.m., NZST, followed by a Top Ten Shootout at 1:40 p.m., and Race 24 at 4:10.

SEE ALL OF VELOCITY’S PUKEKOHE PHOTOS HERE

DRIVERS’ VIEW
No. 5 The Bottle-O Ford Mustang
Lee Holdsworth
Practice 3: 1m02.02s, 5th
Race 23 Quali: 1m01.93s, 8th
Race 23 Finish: 5th
“We had a good car. I felt like we lost a bit going into qualifying, and more so today from yesterday. We went back to a sort of similar set up for today’s race and it paid off. I had a shocker start and dropped back to 12^th, and to fight back to P5 was really good. It’s a really good sign of our race pace, the crew did a really good job with stops and strategy. Tomorrow the aim is to start up front so we can push for some silverware.”

No. 6 Monster Energy Ford Mustang
Cameron Waters
Practice 3: 1m02.15s, 7th
Race 23 Quali: 1m01.70s, 2nd
Race 23 Finish: 2nd
“It was a great day, kind of in practice we struggled a little bit with my car, and changed the set up philosophy a fair bit this weekend. It kind of got good for qualifying, I thought I had pole for a second until Shane decided to go quicker, but overall great to be on the podium again.”

On Lap 39 incident with Mostert:
“Chaz and I, we just were having a pretty ding-dong battle. We had a pretty good battle the stint before, and he got me, then coming out of the pits, I’ve come out and I was going down the inside of (Turn) 1, he kind of ran wide, and then ran wide again into (Turn) 4, which opened the door for me. We just tried to out brake each other into (Turn) 5, and then he’s kind of got into my rear a little bit, and I’ve locked a front (and) we’ve both gone off. Yeah, we were racing each other probably a little bit too hard. We’ve got a tendency to do that, we were at the hire karts the other day and we took each other out in that as well. Not great, obviously team mates, you don’t want to be running into each other. I don’t know whose fault it is, probably a little bit of both of us, but sorry to the 55 guys, we want all the cars to be up the front together.”

No. 55 Supercheap Auto Ford Mustang
Chaz Mostert
Practice 3: 1m01.90s, 1st
Race 23 Quali: 1m01.78s, 4th
Race 23 Finish: 24th
“What do you say, I guess this place just hates me some days. We made the car a fair bit better today, car had good pace, and obviously we were on for a podium if it all came together, then unfortunately Cam and I got together there in (Turn) 5. We were racing hard, I had warmer tyres so I thought I’d be able to get around the outside, but he went just as deep as me and locked up, and that was that. Broke some bits on the front corner and we had to scramble just to get points. Tough day, we’ll try to make it a better one tomorrow.”

No. 23 Milwaukee Racing Ford Mustang 
Will Davison
Practice 3: 1m01.99s, 3rd
Race 23 Quali: 1m01.75s, 3rd
Race 23 Finish: 9th
“A bit annoying, obviously we had good track position early, which we understand here is really tough with everyone pitting early and trying to get track position. Unfortunately we got stuck behind a lot of cars on that Safety Car. We lost a lot of time there although we had a lot less fuel to put in, so we were always racing for the podium, and I just made an error at pit entry, which was really costly. I just tried to push that little bit more to the line and stuffed up, so I’m kicking myself tonight. A good day, but I just threw away a result there, so obviously I’m pretty annoyed.”

Tim Edwards, Team Principal
“It’s great to have Cam back on the podium and Lee in the top five, but obviously really disappointing for Chaz and Will. The positive is we had four really fast cars, two ended up in the top five and the other two were in the running for the podium. As for Chaz and Cam getting together, they shouldn’t have, they were both on the limit like they usually are, and they crossed that line. You hate to have it happen, we really should have had at least two cars on the podium, so it’s a tough pill to swallow, but tomorrow’s another day. If we can bring today’s pace back tomorrow we’re every chance to have another strong result.”

SUBSCRIBE TO VELOCITY MAGAZINE 

For all our news keep your eyes peeled on the Velocity Magazine website and social media, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for our daily updates and to get the latest edition of our glossy magazine subscribe here from just $55 for 12 months subscription.

GET OUR LATEST ISSUE NUMBER 33 HERE