Mark Winterbottom has delivered Team 18 its very first Repco Supercars Championship race win after Cameron Waters’ Mustang caught fire while leading Race 13 at the Betr Darwin Triple Crown.
On an afternoon of high drama at Hidden Valley Raceway, two Safety Cars were called during the 35-lap race for fires, the second of which was said to have involved another Tickford Racing Ford Mustang.
That was reported back as a grass fire set off by a Declan Fraser spin, while Waters’ was far scarier.
His was eerily reminiscent of the blazes which went up in team-mate James Courtney’s Mustang and that of Walkinshaw Andretti United’s Nick Percat at Albert Park.
As was the case then, the front passenger side corner went up in flames, although Waters was completing Lap 4 when the fire began, rather than on his first lap.
The mishap handed Winterbottom a lead which he would not relinquish, although the veteran in the #18 DeWalt Camaro was kept honest by 20-year-old Red Bull Ampol Racing pilot Broc Feeney (#88 Camaro) in the latter half of the 35-lapper.
Just 0.4561s separated them at the chequered flag, with Will Davison finishing third in the #17 Shell V-Power Racing Team Mustang, his first official podium of 2023.
Brodie Kostecki extended his championship lead with a drive from 10th to fourth in Erebus Motorsport’s #99 Coca-Cola Camaro, with Brad Jones Racing’s Bryce Fullwood staving off Shane van Gisbergen to get home fifth in the #14 Middy’s Camaro.
Back at lights out, Feeney had made the better launch from the outside of the front row but pole-sitter Waters did well enough to lead into the first corner courtesy of the inside line.
Waters held the lead until disaster struck at the start of Lap 5, when he was forced to pull off with the fire aboard his #6 Monster Energy Mustang.
While he helped put out the blaze, Winterbottom inherited the lead and, with the Safety Car called, Car #18 headed the field into pit lane for their compulsory pit stops.
The Team 18 driver emerged still in first position, from Feeney, Will Davison (#17 Shell V-Power Mustang), Bryce Fullwood (#14 Middy’s Camaro), Brodie Kostecki (#99 Coca-Cola Camaro), and Shane van Gisbergen (#97 Red Bull Ampol Camaro), who lost three positions having had to double stack.
It was a messy restart at the end of Lap 10, with cars checking up around the back of the top 10, but Winterbottom was clear of all of that.
He had gapped Feeney by a full second when a second Safety Car period was called on Lap 16 due to the grass fire.
The next restart came at the start of Lap 18 and it was somewhat cleaner than the previous one, although van Gisbergen immediately attacked Kostecki for fifth.
The championship leader covered and then van Gisbergen had to keep the other Erebus Motorsport entry of Will Brown (#9 Coca-Cola Camaro) at bay for the first half of the lap, which he did so.
In this phase of the race, Feeney was keeping pace with Winterbottom, trailing the #18 Camaro by half a second at the end of Lap 25.
However, ‘Frosty’ looked to be managing his tyres as they drove into the unknown, that being a genuine race stint in a Gen3 race car at Hidden Valley.
Feeney gave Car #18 a nudge through the Turn 6 chicane on the 35th and final lap but it was not enough to seriously unsettle the 2013 Bathurst 1000 winner.
The victory is Winterbottom’s first since 2016, and the first for Charlie Schwerkolt’s Team 18, which branched out on its own in that same year after periods as a satellite Tickford Racing and Walkinshaw Racing entry.
Kostecki got past Fullwood in the closing stages to claim fourth, while the local hero finished fifth, ahead of van Gisbergen, Brown, Chaz Mostert (#25 Mobil 1 Optus Mustang), Anton De Pasquale (#11 Shell V-Power Mustang), and Tim Slade (#23 Nulon Camaro).
Scott Pye is provisionally 12th in the other Team 18 entry, the #20 Hino Camaro, although the squad is under investigation for an alleged pit stop breach after a mess unfolded in pit lane when 25 cars piled in due to the Waters Safety Car.
Qualifying for Race 14 and Qualifying for Race 15 will be held tomorrow from 09:30 local time/10:00 AEST.
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