Waters wins, takes second in Dunlop Series

Cameron Waters has claimed second position in the V8 Supercars Development Series by virtue of a race and maiden round win at Sydney Olympic Park.

Previously confirmed champion Paul Dumbrell failed to finish for the first time all season.

Waters showed a clean pair of heels at race start and then three restarts to win in lights-to-flag fashion.

Aaren Russell was similarly untroubled as he achieved a second placing for the race and round, the latter a personal best for the Novocastrian, while Andrew Jones held out Todd Hazelwood for third.

Waters was fast off the line but Andre Heimgartner was tardy from the outside of the front row.

The young Kiwi was then nudged into Dumbrell at the first corner, tipping the Holden into a spin.

James Golding subsequently side-swiped the Eggleston Commodore as the field filed through, necessitating a safety car.

Racing resumed on Lap 4, but that was to be short-lived as Ash Walsh – who was also bumped wide by Heimgartner in the opening corner melee – triggered another incident.

The Matt Stone Racing driver was over zealous in attempting to recover lost positions, bumping Taz Douglas into the Turn 8 tyre wall, who was in turn collected by another Eggleston Commodore in Ant Pedersen.

Walsh served a drive-through shortly after the Lap 8 restart, promoting Andrew Jones to third as Heimgartner also pitted due to a bent wheel.

Meanwhile, Eggleston’s third car of Garry Jacobson was also called to tour the lane for weaving after the safety car’s lights had been turned out.

Waters had amassed a lead of over two seconds when three straight laps of green flag racing were again interrupted by the safety car, this time for Macauley Jones blocking pit entry due to a steering failure.

The race went green for good on Lap 15, Waters scampering away and Russell also finding his own space as Hazelwood applied the blowtorch to Jones, with Paul Morris and Chris Pither close behind.

The pointy end of the field nevertheless remained unchanged for the balance of the time-shortened race, which ran for 19 of 23 scheduled laps.

Waters ultimately won by 4.7s, while Walsh recovered from a race-low 19th to finish 11th and at least salvage third in the series.

“It was really good today,” said Waters.

“Yesterday we were kind of struggling a little bit, but overnight we tuned the car up, got pole by a fair bit, and won the race pretty easily as well so it was a good day.”

The 2015 Dunlop Series commences at Adelaide’s Clipsal 500 from 26 February to 1 March.

See below for Dunlop Series Race 2 results