Waters triumphs in dramatic Symmons Plains finale

Cam Waters dominated Sunday’s race at the Tasmania SuperSprint to take victory ahead of championship leader Will Brown and BJR’s Bryce Fullwood.

Waters hit the front at the hairpin on Lap 1 when his teammate Thomas Randle ran wide and remained in the lead until the chequered flag.

The fight for the minor podium places brought plenty of drama.

Brown and Randle had battled for large portions of the race, and the Tickford driver looked in a position to take second late in proceedings but made contact with Brown at the hairpin on Lap 44. The two ran side-by-side down the back straight before coming together at Turn 6, which sent Randle wide and onto the grass. A fast-approaching Feeney also got past the Tickford driver to move into third.

As the Red Bull duo battled between themselves, Randle made back the ground but locked up entering the hairpin on Lap 50, with the resulting contact spinning Feeney.

Fullwood, who had been running fifth, snuck under both to move into the final podium place, which he held onto until the finish.

Randle was penalised 15 seconds for the incident, which relegated him to 18th. Feeney, meanwhile, was left languishing in 15th.

Those incidents were just two of several in the Symmons Plain finale, with two Safety Car periods shaping proceedings.

The first of those came on Lap 7 when David Reynolds was turned by Brodie Kostecki exiting the hairpin. Reynolds was left stranded on the grass verge on the inside and required assistance to return to the track.

Kostecki’s issues didn’t stop there, however.

With the Safety Car out, the field all stopped, only for Erebus to release the reigning champion into the path of Mark Winterbottom, who was turning into the bay ahead. Kostecki’s front left made contact with Winterbottom’s right rear, with the former forced into the garage for repairs.

He returned to the track, albeit several laps down, before he received two drive-through penalties: one for the contact with Reynolds and the other for the unsafe release. In addition, he also received a 15-second time penalty for speeding in the pit lane during his stop.

A double-stack at Tickford during that Safety Car saw Brown sneak past Randle into second.

Jaxon Evans and Aaron Love were the next to find trouble, coming together entering Turn 1. Love strayed across the track to take the racing line into the corner, but Evans was on his inside.

The contact sent the BJR Camaro into the inside wall, causing significant damage. Love returned to the track, while Evans was the race’s sole retiree.

Waters remained at the front off the ensuing restart and pulled clear through the second half to take a comfortable 6.34-second victory over Brown, who had Fullwood one second behind at the chequered flag.

Mostert recovered from his qualifying disappointment of 11th place to finish fourth, ahead of Jack Le Brocq and Andre Heimgartner, the first Kiwi home in sixth.

Saturday’s race winner, Nick Percat, climbed from 24th to finish seventh, ahead of Ryan Wood, Winterbottom and Tim Slade, who completed the top ten.

Richie Stanaway finished 17th, while Matt Payne was 21st, having copped a drive-through penalty for ignoring the red light when exiting the pit lane, as did Reynolds.

Brown leaves Tasmania still in the championship lead but has Mostert only 81 points behind.

Supercars return with the Sandown 500 on September 13-15.

Tasmania SuperSprint Race 2 Results

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