Rick Kelly and Cameron Waters hold no hard feelings after a Race 17 clash which impacted their days at the Watpac Townsville 400.
The pair came together on Lap 26 of Saturday’s encounter as Waters rejoined the race track from the pits and found the same piece of road as Kelly.
On the inside line for Turn 2, Waters locked a front wheel on his Tickford Racing Ford Mustang and clipped the right-rear of Kelly’s Nissan Altima, spinning the latter around.
Kelly had been running in the top 15, while Waters was seventh prior to the first round of pit stops.
Waters was handed a 15s time penalty for the incident and ultimately finished a lonely 21st, while Kelly managed to claw his way back up to 17th at the chequered flag.
After the race, Waters apologised to Kelly, with both drivers shrugging off the clash.
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“I’m smiling but I’m hurting inside with a result like that, obviously,” said Kelly.
“Getting turned around it costs you that time but it also damages your tyre and you struggle to get it back and it puts you in a little bit of traffic.
“That’s the way it goes; I’m sure I’ve made a mistake and hit Cam before.
“He’s already come down and said sorry, it is what it is. Doesn’t matter.
“It always tends to do that at Townsville (cause action), Safety Car rate is pretty high and when you have a shunt here you have a big one — we’ve seen that in the years gone by, so I’m pretty happy that we haven’t had that done today.”
Waters’ first pit stop was delayed as the team made a ride height adjustment on the car which saw him rejoin in the proximity of Kelly and ultimately led to the incident, compounding the difficult day for Waters.
“Not a great day for Car #6. Everything was kind of going wrong, (I) didn’t really have the best pace and got caught up with Rick,” he said.
“(I) locked a brake and kind of just put us on the back foot for the whole race. It is what it is, you have these days.
“Obviously Chaz’s (Mostert) car is quick, they’re trying a few things with that car,” he added, citing his team-mate’s podium result.
“It will hopefully help the rest of us for tomorrow. But I guess my car wasn’t great, so we’ll have to really dig in and see what’s wrong with it.”
Supercars returns to the track for Armor All Qualifying on Sunday at 1035 AEST.
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