Waters wins fourth Supercars ESeries round

Cameron Waters won the North American-themed round and draws closer to McLaughlin in the overall standings.

The first two races of the evening took place in Montreal, where De Pasquale set a scorching time around the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve to take pole position in the second qualifying session of the evening.

The next two races took place at Watkins Glen International, which utilized the layout used by the NASCAR Cup Series.

It was a tightly-contested battle in qualifying between Van Gisbergen, de Pasquale, and McLaughlin. The battle for pole was eventually resolved in favour of Van Gisbergen.

Circuit Gilles Villeneuve (Montreal)
Race 1

It was a messy start to the race with pole man De Pasquale running off the road, losing the lead to Van Gisbergen. Cranage ensued in behind as the field attempted to negotiate the tight left-right complex.

Fabian Coulthard was caught up in the opening lap melee after tangling with Alex Davison early on.

Andre Heimgartner began to pressure Cameron Waters for fifth position, eventually passing at turn eight.

Jake Kostecki’s race meanwhile was turned upside down after being issued a drive-through penalty for a dangerous re-entry.

Van Gisbergen was the first of the leaders to make the compulsory pitstop. McLaughlin pitted the following lap but could not get the leap on his countryman.

Pitting a lap later, De Pasquale had lost out to McLaughlin in the pitstop, leaving the Penrite Commodore in third.

With two laps to go, the battle between the top three began to intensify – McLaughlin and De Pasquale utilizing the draft to draw closer to Van Gisbergen.

McLaughlin turned up the aggression on the final lap and gave what looked to be a bump-and-run on Van Gisbergen at turn two.

After being forced to relinquish the position, De Pasquale took advantage of the readdress and passed McLaughlin on the outside of turn eight for second.

The pressure was on for the remainder of the lap, but Van Gisbergen held on for the first win of the evening, with De Pasquale and McLaughlin rounding out the podium.

Circuit Gilles Villeneuve (Montreal)
Race 2

The reverse grid format saw Jack Smith and Joey Logano on the front row. Both drivers were swamped off the line which caused a monumental wreck that involved the majority of the field.

Coulthard was the leader when the safety car was deployed due to the incident.

However, his race would turn to ruin as the vast majority of the field completed their compulsory pitstops while Coulthard, Winterbottom, and Logano elected to stay out.

This left Mostert in the effective lead of the race. Smith’s race was soon thrown in disarray as his engine began to smoke heavily.

De Pasquale, Van Gisbergen, and McLaughlin all incurred issues, with the latter two being confined to the pitlane for an extended period of time due to extensive damage to their cars.

Waters was the big mover during the race, having climbed from the rear of the grid to work his way onto the podium.

Mostert would cruise to the line to take the second race of the evening. Waters and Goddard completed the podium.

Watkins Glen International
Race 1

Van Gisbergen bogged down off the line and lost several positions as De Pasquale took the lead into turn one.

The race was quiet for a few laps as drivers began to complete their compulsory pitstops.

McLaughlin was the first of the leaders to pit on lap six. De Pasquale and Van Gisbergen made their stops a lap later remaining in effective first and third, respectively.

There was a fierce battle for seventh place that involved seven cars and saw cars running side-by-side through the esses.

De Pasquale began to gradually pull away from McLaughlin, while the gap between himself and Van Gisbergen remained stagnant.

Two-time Supercars champion Marcos Ambrose meanwhile performed well and used his experience of the Watkins Glen circuit from his NASCAR days to great effect.

De Pasquale won comfortably from McLaughlin and Van Gisbergen – who would be rueing his poor start.

Watkins Glen International
Race 2

Jack Smith started from the pole position in the second reverse grid race of the evening.

A few cars struck trouble on the opening lap of the race. Meanwhile, Jamie Whincup had taken the lead on the opening lap of the race after a troubled start to his Esports campaign.

Several drivers – including Ambrose – elected to pit early to avoid the mid-field concertina.

Whincup soon came under attack from Triple Eight Super2 driver, Angelo Mouzouris. The 18-year-old assumed the race lead after Whincup pitted on lap seven.

Mostert’s race went from bad to worse as the Walkinshaw Andretti United driver endured a tough race beset by several incidents.

Mouzouris was the last of the leading drivers to pit and resumed in sixth place, behind McLaughlin.

Waters and McLaughlin pounced on Ambrose on the approach to turn one. Neither Waters nor McLaughlin relinquished as they travelled side-by-side through the esses.

As the race drew to a close, Rossi started to catch Whincup. But it wasn’t fast enough.

Whincup held on to take his first win in the BP Supercars All Star ESeries with Rossi in second and McLaughlin third. Waters won the round and draws closer to McLaughlin in the overall standings.

Next week the championship heads back to Europe, as the Supercars tackle two of the world’s most iconic and demanding circuits – Spa-Francorchamps and the Nürburgring.

Image Credit: Tickford Racing

Drivers standings after Round 4