Waters, Pye to share Adelaide front row

CAM Waters scored pole position for the Saturday leg of the VALO Adelaide 500 in a sweet and sour Top 10 Shootout for Tickford Racing.

There were dramatic scenes at the start of the run-off as Tickford raced to repair Thomas Randle’s Castrol Mustang following a Turn 8 crash in Practice 3.

Randle had been scheduled to be first out and, although the car was repaired, failed to present at pit exit on time and was dramatically prevented from taking to the circuit.

Waters was the fifth of the nine cars that did run and set a 1:19.3716s that proved 0.3522s quicker than previous fast-man David Reynolds.

That time withstood the four subsequent efforts and gave Waters his 10^th pole of the season, putting him one ahead of Will Davison’s in the season tally.

“I needed that pole. I haven’t done a clean lap all weekend so did it just in time obviously for the right point,” said Waters.

“I can’t thank my team enough, they’ve given me a really nice car just then, it was a bit of a handful until then.

“I’m super pumped to be starting on the front row, I think we have got a good race car and massive pat on the back to the #55 (Randle) guys… it’s a shame they just missed it.”

Pye was the seventh driver on track and narrowly knocked off Reynolds for what ultimately proved second on the grid; Team 18’s best qualifying result of the season.

“I was a little bit lucky there, I made a mistake into Turn 1,” admitted Pye, who will start from the front row for the first time since 2016.

“I thought I had missed the fourth gear and I went again and grabbed third gear, so very lucky not to overrev the engine too bad and get out the other side without a drama.”

Anton De Pasquale ended up behind Reynolds in fourth, while James Courtney, Andre Heimgartner, James Golding, Chaz Mostert and Todd Hazelwood filled fifth through ninth.

Mostert was the last out on track having topped Friday’s qualifying but was unexpectedly off the pace, 0.6413s slower than Waters.

“We just didn’t quite get the track condition right, probably drove it a little bit too silly to be honest,” said Mostert immediately after his lap.

“We’ll get back to the drawing board, it’s a long race, (I’m) pretty confident we have a good car when we put it together.”

There was more drama after the Shootout with Reynolds’ Mustang under investigation for a technical breach.

Supercars’ head of motorsport Adrian Burgess told the TV broadcast that it “appears the rear wing seems a little bit higher than legally allowed”.

He added that is “more than likely going to be disqualification from the Top 10” for Reynolds.

RESULTS: Top 10 Shootout for Race 33, 2022 VALO Adelaide 500