Waters dominates Gold Coast opener, Payne fourth

Cam Waters has dominated the opening race of the Gold Coast 500 to lead home teammate Thomas Randle for Tickford’s first one-two since 2017.

Red Bull’s Broc Feeney kept his title hopes alive with third, four places to the good of his championship-leading teammate Will Brown, who bounced back from his qualifying crash and climbed forward from 11th to seventh.

With three races remaining in the 2024 season, 171 points seperate the two Red Bull drivers.

Matt Payne was the first of the Kiwis in fourth, having been overtaken by Feeney in the closing stages. Payne ran a tidy race and found himself in with a chance for a podium until the closing stages, but was caught by the Red Bull.

Fourth place for Payne returns him to the top five in the championship at the expense of James Golding.

Reigning Champion Brodie Kostecki was another on the charge forward, climbing from 10th to fifth. It was a stark contrast to his Erebus Motorsport teammate Jack Le Brocq, who found trouble on Lap 1 and lost several laps on the field.

David Reynolds drove his new Camaro to sixth, ahead of Brown, while Andre Heimgartner was the second-best Kiwi in eighth.

Kiwi front-row starter Richie Stanaway battled his way to ninth, while Chaz Mostert recovered from electronic issues mid-race to finish tenth.

Stanaway was on the backfoot from the start, with setup issues for the Penrite Mustang seeing him fall into the grasps of Mostert, Golding and Feeney through the opening stages.

Feeney and Randle were the first of the lead group to pit, stopping on Lap 25. Golding followed a lap later, but a pedestrian left-rear tyre change cost considerable time and dropped him from podium contention.

Waters, who managed a comfortable advantage through the opening stint, stopped on Lap 33, and was followed six seconds later by Mostert, then in second.

A gear position sensor issue cost Mostert in the pits however, seeing him lose out to Feeney and Randle, who he overcame shortly after but lost out to again during his second stop with the aforementioned electronic issues.

Waters returned from his stop 11 seconds to the good over Randle, who had climbed to second, and cruised to a 9.4-second win.

Golding’s recovery from his first pit stop drama got him to 16th place.

Jaxon Evans was one of the race’s biggest movers, climbing from 24th to 17th.

Ryan Wood was in the wars several times on the street circuit, first caught out in a Lap 1 incident before then copping a five-second, 10-second and drive through penalty for repeated kerb strikes.

All 24 cars finished the 85-lap race that wen without Safety Car.

Supercars returns for Race 22 on Sunday, with qualifying beginning from 12.10 pm NZST.

Gold Coast 500 Race 1 Results