Waters tops Shootout as Mostert hits wall

CAM Waters has put Tickford Racing on pole position for Race 2 of the NTI Townsville 500.

The talking point of the Top 10 Shootout was track conditions, with times a long way off the 1:12.8387s with which Brodie Kostecki topped qualifying this morning.

“It’s like a gender reveal out there… there’s just pink burnout rubber everywhere from the burnout cars,” said Will Davison, who was the session’s second runner.

“It’s actually pretty dumb to be honest, to run that obviously before the Shootout.

“You’re on the outlap just like literally driving through oil and it’s just going to clean up and get faster every lap.

“I was just wheel-spinning for hundreds of metres, I was looking at all the pink and blue and was like ‘I see where all of the grip has gone’. So frustrating.”

Davison’s prediction came to fruition with times progressively improving throughout the session.

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Will Brown was the first driver to have the Reid Park Street Circuit to himself, managing no better than a 1:15.2726s.

The benchmark was trimmed to a high 1:14s by Anton De Pasquale, down to a mid 1:14s by Thomas Randle and then Jack Le Brocq, before Waters put himself in with a shot at pole with a 1:14.4184s.

That left just qualifying pacesetter Kostecki to come, and the #99 Erebus driver fell 0.2947s short.

So, the top 10 order will run: Waters, Le Brocq, Randle, Kostecki, David Reynolds, De Pasquale, Davison, Andre Heimgartner, Brown and Chaz Mostert, who hit the wall exiting Turn 2.

“The track was massively different compared to quali,” said Waters.

“Quali had heaps of grip, heaps of fun and she was pretty loose then but I just tried to hit my marks and do a nice, clean lap and I knew if I had everything half-okay I’d be up there or in the mix.

“The car is great over one lap, we just need to make sure it’s good over 88.”

Race 2 will start at 2:40pm, with a maximum of 150 points up for grabs.

Brown enters with a 43-point advantage over teammate Kostecki, with Feeney one point further back.

Fourth in the championship, Shane van Gisbergen, will start from 25th.

Results: Top 10 Shootout, 2023 NTI Townsville 500