Waters holds off van Gisbergen to win Race 11

Cameron Waters has picked up his first win of 2021 after holding off Shane van Gisbergen in Race 11 of the Repco Supercars Championship at The Bend.

Waters had to withstand several laps of pressure from the championship leader, including a genuine attempt at a pass with eight laps to go, to take victory.

The Tickford Racing driver’s triumph completed a sweep of the OTR SuperSprint for Ford courtesy of three different teams, after the Blue Oval had gone winless through the three preceding events of the campaign.

However, there was disappointment for Race 10 victor Anton De Pasquale, who gave up an early lead due to an engine problem and completed only three laps.

THE FINAL RACE OF THE 2023 REPCO SUPERCARS CHAMPIONSHIP ON ONE OF THE WORLD’S BEST STREET CIRCUITS.
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With Will Davison finishing third in the other Dick Johnson Racing Mustang and Jamie Whincup fourth, van Gisbergen’s championship lead over the latter has grown to 190 points.

De Pasquale led the field from pole position into Turn 1, where Waters (#6 Monster Energy Mustang) slipped into second spot.

Whincup (#88 ZB Commodore) had made a good start from the outside of the front row and looked a threat to nab first position from the #11 Shell V-Power Mustang but instead slotted into third, ahead of Red Bull Ampol Racing team-mate van Gisbergen (#97 ZB Commodore).

Davison (#17 Shell V-Power Mustang) emerged fifth from Turn 6 after Tim Slade (#3 CoolDrive Mustang) dived at Chaz Mostert (#25 Mobil 1 Appliances Online ZB Commodore) but took both wide.

De Pasquale was 1.2s up on Waters at the end of Lap 2 but ceded the lead 13 corners later and pitted at the next opportunity due to a misfire for Car #11.

Van Gisbergen put an easy move on Whincup for second spot at the start of Lap 4, at which point Waters led by around two seconds, while Davison pitted from fourth on Lap 5.

Whincup still sat third when he took service on Lap 8 and rejoined between Davison and Slade, representing a loss of one spot in effective terms.

The gap between Waters and van Gisbergen was fluctuating, standing at approximately 1.3s when the former pitted for a fresh set of rear tyres on Lap 12 and got out about a second ahead of Davison once up to speed.

Mostert, however, resumed behind Whincup and Slade, having followed the #6 Tickford Racing entry into the lane.

Van Gisbergen kept going, in the nominal race lead, and was still setting personal best lap times until he stopped at the end of Lap 15.

As Triple Eight Race Engineering went to work on Car #97, Waters was resetting the very fastest lap of the race, and he was able to just get ahead of van Gisbergen when they braked for Turn 1 after the latter left the lane.

Mostert overtook Slade in the effective battle for fifth on Lap 16, as van Gisbergen stalked Waters.

The 2020 Bathurst 1000 winner shaped for a move on Lap 17 at Turn 1 but Waters was able to keep him at bay.

Nevertheless, they continued to put distance between themselves and Davison, who still held an effective third spot.

Nick Percat (#8 R&J Batteries ZB Commodore) was last to serve his compulsory pit stop, on Lap 20, restoring Waters to the official race lead, by 0.4s over van Gisbergen.

Davison was about 4.5s further back, ahead of Whincup, Mostert, Slade, Percat, Courtney, Scott Pye (#30 DeWalt ZB Commodore), and Andre Heimgartner (#7 Ned Mustang).

Percat went past Slade on Lap 22 at Turn 6, while van Gisbergen continued to tail Waters.

However, there would be no more changes at the pointy end of the field, with Waters winning again at the scene of his most recent victory, albeit on a different circuit layout.

The margin back to #97 was 0.6963s in the end, with Davison almost six seconds further back.

Waters also held on to the five bonus points for setting the fastest lap, a stark contrast to the day’s earlier race, in which he completed only one lap due to crash damage.

“I’ve got no words,” he said.

“We had a fast car all weekend. We were quick in the wet and then you know what happened in the first race today.

“The boys worked so bloody hard to fix the car, and not just fix it, but give me one that’s capable of winning.

“The boys earnt this one. They gave me a good pit stop and it was up to me.”

Rounding out the top 10 were Whincup, Mostert, Percat, Slade, Courtney, Pye, and Heimgartner, the latter of whom was not sanctioned after early-race contact that sent Mark Winterbottom (#18 Irwin Tools ZB Commodore) spinning.

Winterbottom finished 18th while Garry Jacobson joined De Pasquale as a retirement due to a power steering problem for Team Sydney’s #22 PremiAir ZB Commodore.

The next event is the Winton SuperSprint, on May 29-30.

Results: Race 11, OTR SuperSprint

Pos	Num	Team/Sponsor	Driver	Car	Laps	Race time
1	6	Monster Energy Racing	Cameron Waters	Ford Mustang GT	24	45:11.1776
2	97	Red Bull Ampol Racing Team	Shane van Gisbergen	Holden Commodore ZB	24	45:11.8739
3	17	Shell V-Power Racing Team	Will Davison	Ford Mustang GT	24	45:17.8361
4	88	Red Bull Ampol Racing Team	Jamie Whincup	Holden Commodore ZB	24	45:19.0359
5	25	Mobil 1 Appliances Online	Chaz Mostert	Holden Commodore ZB	24	45:22.8811
6	8	R&J Batteries	Nick Percat	Holden Commodore ZB	24	45:23.9845
7	3	CoolDrive Racing	Tim Slade	Ford Mustang GT	24	45:24.3550
8	44	Boost Mobile Racing	James Courtney	Ford Mustang GT	24	45:26.0168
9	20	DEWALT Racing	Scott Pye	Holden Commodore ZB	24	45:26.2781
10	7	NED Whisky Racing	Andre Heimgartner	Ford Mustang GT	24	45:29.1640
11	99	Erebus Boost Mobile Racing	Brodie Kostecki	Holden Commodore ZB	24	45:30.3736
12	26	Penrite Racing	David Reynolds	Ford Mustang GT	24	45:31.7071
13	14	TRG Transport	Todd Hazelwood	Holden Commodore ZB	24	45:34.4213
14	2	Mobil 1 Middy’s Racing	Bryce Fullwood	Holden Commodore ZB	24	45:37.8909
15	55	Castrol Racing	Thomas Randle	Ford Mustang GT	24	45:39.6237
16	34	UNIT Racing	Jake Kostecki	Holden Commodore ZB	24	45:41.4037
17	19	Local Legends	Fabian Coulthard	Holden Commodore ZB	24	45:42.0273
18	18	IRWIN Racing	Mark Winterbottom	Holden Commodore ZB	24	45:42.3144
19	4	SCT Motor Sports	Jack Smith	Holden Commodore ZB	24	45:43.7030
20	96	Coca-Cola Racing	Macauley Jones	Holden Commodore ZB	24	45:47.1061
21	35	Yellow Cover Racing	Zane Goddard	Holden Commodore ZB	24	45:56.5926
22	5	Truck Assist Racing	Jack Le Brocq	Ford Mustang GT	24	46:11.7749
23	27	Walkinshaw Andretti United	Kurt Kostecki	Holden Commodore ZB	24	46:28.6502
24	9	Erebus Motorsport	William Brown	Holden Commodore ZB	23	45:14.4645
NC	22	Team SYDNEY	Garry Jacobson	Holden Commodore ZB	11	33:13.2961
NC	11	Shell V-Power Racing Team	Anton De Pasquale	Ford Mustang GT	3	5:46.7574

Fastest lap (bonus): Cameron Waters 1:50.0613, Lap 15

Drivers’ championship

Pos	Driver	Pts
1	Shane van Gisbergen	1112
2	Jamie Whincup	922
3	Chaz Mostert	866
4	Will Davison	861
5	Cameron Waters	848
6	Mark Winterbottom	697
7	Anton De Pasquale	648
8	Andre Heimgartner	646
9	Nick Percat	617
10	Brodie Kostecki	615
11	Scott Pye	580
12	James Courtney	566
13	David Reynolds	546
14	William Brown	544
15	Bryce Fullwood	527
16	Jack Le Brocq	516
17	Todd Hazelwood	511
18	Zane Goddard	442
19	Jake Kostecki	432
20	Tim Slade	410
21	Fabian Coulthard	334
22	Jack Smith	330
23	Garry Jacobson	285
24	Macauley Jones	282
25	Thomas Randle	136
26	Kurt Kostecki	94

Teams’ championship

Pos	Car(s)			Team	Pts
1	88	97		Triple Eight Race Engineering	2034
2	11	17	100	Dick Johnson Racing	1509
3	6	44		Tickford Racing	1414
4	2	25		Walkinshaw Andretti United	1393
5	18	20		Team 18	1277
6	7	26		Kelly Grove Racing	1192
7	9	99		Erebus Motorsport	1159
8	8	14		Brad Jones Racing	1128
9	34	35		Matt Stone Racing	874
10	19	22		Team Sydney	619
11	4	96		Brad Jones Racing	612
12	5			Tickford Racing	516
13	3			Blanchard Racing Team	410
14	55			Tickford Racing	136
15	27			Walkinshaw Andretti United	94