Waters holds off Davison to win Supercars Race 17 in Darwin

Tickford Racing’s Cameron Waters has held off Will Davison to take victory in Race 17 of the Repco Supercars Championship at the Merlin Darwin Triple Crown.

The #6 Monster Energy Mustang started from pole and effectively led all 37 laps around Hidden Valley Raceway but Waters was kept honest by Davison in the closing stages, eventually winning by 0.6170s over the #17 Shell V-Power Racing Team entry.

Red Bull Ampol Racing’s Shane van Gisbergen similarly saw off the other Dick Johnson Racing Mustang, that of Anton De Pasquale, in the battle for the final podium placing, while Penrite Racing’s David Reynolds got home in fifth after rolling the dice on a four-tyre pit stop.

In the drivers’ championship, van Gisbergen now leads by 278 points over De Pasquale, and 346 over Waters.

Said the latter of his victory, Tickford’s 80th in the Supercars Championship, “It means a lot.

“Obviously yesterday wasn’t ideal for us but awesome now to bounce back with a pole and a win and get this car up here.

“We’re not usually that strong up here so it’s nice to get a trophy and reward all of the team for all of their hard work.

“I knew Wilbur had something in the tank but I was just trying to manage it and make sure I had something in the end and we had enough.”

Waters and Reynolds (#26 Mustang) made an even start from the head of the field but when the latter tried to go the long way around the first corner, he ran wider still and was passed for second by Davison (#17 Mustang).

A Safety Car was called on Lap 1, and soon upgraded to a race suspension, due to an ugly incident at the Turn 6 hairpin when James Courtney (#5 Snowy River Caravans Mustang) clattered into Tickford team-mate Thomas Randle (#55 Castrol Mustang) and Scott Pye (#20 Nulon ZB Commodore) after skating through the infield off Turn 5.

Van Gisbergen (#97 ZB Commodore) sat fourth and De Pasquale (#11 Shell V-Power Mustang) fifth through the red flag period of around 15 minutes, before the field was sent for a restart, effective Lap 5.

Waters shook off early pressure from the Davison and Reynolds, and the latter would find van Gisbergen firmly in his mirrors around the Lap 16 mark as they circulated just over two seconds from the lead.

Triple Eight Race Engineering decided to call Car #97 into the lane for another set of rear super softs on Lap 17 and while the service was good, van Gisbergen was overtaken by early stopper Jack Le Brocq (#34 Truck Assist ZB Commodore) as he braked for Turn 1 on his out lap.

Waters and Davison were around half a second or so apart when both peeled off for their compulsory pit stop on Lap 18, each taking rears before rejoining as you were in effective terms.

Not far behind them, however, Le Brocq ran wide at Turn 1 at the start of Lap 19 and that gave van Gisbergen all he needed to pick off the Matt Stone Racing driver when they arrived at the Turn 5 right-hander.

Reynolds and De Pasquale went until Lap 22, the end of the cycle, to pit, and the #26 Grove Racing entry was fitted with fresh hoops on all four corners.

For the run home, Waters led by around 0.6s, Davison had a slim margin over van Gisbergen in the other podium places, Le Brocq was fourth, De Pasquale held fifth, and Reynolds’ investment in tyres meant he sat ninth.

De Pasquale passed Le Brocq on the run to the Turn 3/Turn 4 flip-flip on Lap 25, before Reynolds hauled his way back into the top five on Lap 29 when he too overtook Car #34, under brakes at Turn 1.

Van Gisbergen looked to be coming under pressure from De Pasquale with about five laps to go although the latter’s engineer, Ludo Lacroix, seemed to suggest on the radio that there was an element of gamesmanship to the New Zealander’s driving.

Lacroix might have been right because #97 soon rebuilt the margin over #11 by a few precious tenths of a second, while Davison caught up to the rear of the #6 Mustang.

He never quite shaped for a move, however, and finished runner-up for the second race in a row, while van Gisbergen ended up 1.2326s back from #17 at the chequered flag.

De Pasquale and Reynolds were each less than a second further back, the latter also scoring the fastest lap bonus points, with Le Brocq taking sixth from eighth on the grid in a race which finished a lap early due to time-certainty.

Rounding out the top 10 were Mark Winterbottom (#18 Irwin Tools ZB Commodore), Chaz Mostert (#25 Mobil 1 Optus ZB Commodore), Andre Heimgartner (#8 R&J Batteries ZB Commodore), and Nick Percat (#2 Mobil 1 NTI ZB Commodore).

Broc Feeney slipped from seventh at the start to 13th at the end after an off at Turn 1 immediately after his pit stop in the #88 Red Bull Ampol ZB Commodore.

All 24 cars which took the restart made the finish and, of those, only Todd Hazelwood (#35 Truck Assist ZB Commodore) did not get home on the lead lap.

Randle eventually headed back out as well but was not running at the finish and had not completed enough laps to be classified anyway.

The third and final race of the weekend gets underway at 15:25 local time/15:55 AEST.

Results: Race 17, Merlin Darwin Triple Crown

Fastest lap (bonus): David Reynolds, 1:07.3003s, Lap 25

Drivers’ championship

Teams’ championship