Tickford Racing’s Tim Edwards says that Cameron Waters is not nearly as far off the pace as his result of 22nd in Race 7 of the Repco Supercars Championship suggests.
The lowly finishing position came after a spin due to contact from Andre Heimgartner as Waters moved to enter pit lane for his compulsory stop at Wanneroo Raceway.
However, by that time, he had not made any real progress from qualifying 19th, and therein lay the problem, according to Edwards.
The Tickford boss cited a pinched brake in qualifying as the predominant cause of the woes for the #6 Monster Energy Mustang, which is ordinarily near the pointy end of the field.
“I don’t think the pace is that bad,” Edwards told Speedcafe.
“I mean, he certainly doesn’t have the pace of the top, maybe, three to five cars, but he’s certainly got top 10 pace.
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“He just didn’t get to show it [in Race 7] because of the mistake in the second leg of qualifying, so I’m sure he will qualify a higher [today], barring any mistakes.
“But, it’s still not where we want to be; we came here to be on the podium and we had one car that was close-ish to being on the podium, and obviously Thomas did a great job as well and Declan’s learning all the time, but the one that was really out of position for us today was Car #6.”
As Edwards alluded to, James Courtney finished fifth in Race 7 and Thomas Randle ninth, while rookie Declan Fraser got home in 19th.
Waters’ incident with Heimgartner did not result in punishment for the latter, with stewards noting that the Brad Jones Racing driver was given no indication that his Tickford rival would be slowing in order to enter pit lane.
According to Edwards, “Declan had his indicator on but it was just ignored by the cars behind him, so even though they suggest you put your indicator on, that’s not the solution.”
The pit entry which Supercars uses at Wanneroo is an awkward one given its proximity to the exit of Turn 7 but is arguably a lesser evil than that which runs off the downhill section of the straight between Turns 6 and 7.
“It’s a tricky one, said Edwards.
“They’ve built this fantastic facility and obviously put that pit lane in as you come down the hill, but I remember when we came here for the very first time we did a ride day after the first race meeting here.
“We tried to use that pit lane over the brow and it’s not suitable. I was in the car when we came in; it was almost terrifying.
“So, I suppose you’d call it [the pit entry which Supercars does use] a feature, not a fault; you’ve just got to get used to it.”
Qualifying for Race 8 at the Bosch Power Tools Perth SuperSprint gets underway at 09:15 local time/11:15 AEST.
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