THE race-deciding clash between Cam Waters and Will Davison was all the talk following Sunday’s opening Supercars race at Wanneroo.
Davison lunged to a cold-tyred Waters’ inside at Turn 7 on lap 26 as they battled over the effective lead of the race, only for the Tickford Racing pilot to run around the outside of the exit kerb and rejoin ahead.
Race officials took a dim view of the move and handed Waters a five second time penalty for gaining a lasting advantage, dropping him to fourth place in the results and delivering Davison his first race win since the 2016 Bathurst 1000.
However, it’s not the first time the pair have clashed at that corner and on the previous occasion it was Waters who got the silverware.
In 2016, Waters secured his first championship pole position in a wild qualifying session at Wanneroo.
Showers were expected to roll in soon after the 15-minute session began, placing extra premium on drivers to get a fast lap in early – and then Michael Caruso then bunkered his Nissan Altima at Turn 1 on his flyer.
With rain starting to fall, race officials gave the rest of the field a chance to complete their flying laps before red-flagging the session to extract Caruso’s beached car, setting up a mad one-lap scramble to the line.
In a reversal of what happened on Sunday, it was Waters who dove to the inside of Davison at the final corner as the pair finished their flying laps.
Waters was in the thick of the battle for pole position having set the fastest time through the first two sectors, while Davison had slid slightly wide and was desperately trying to avoid registering a kerb strike that would delete what was likely to be his fastest lap of the session.
The pair made contact on the exit as they tried to occupy the same piece of tarmac on the racetrack side of the kerb; in the end, Waters finished his lap and secured his maiden championship pole position while Davison ended up ninth – and was none too pleased about the last-corner scuffle.
On that occasion, the stewards decided no action was required and Waters was allowed to keep his pole position.
How ironic that the same pair should – six years down the road – have a similar scrap at the same corner, only this time over a race victory.
