Cameron Waters wins his 2nd race of the season

• The start of the race could have seemed surreal since 4 Ford Mustangs led the pack during the first laps. Waters the poleman is ahead of Matt Payne (Whole grained Racing) followed by Chaz Mostert (Walkinshaw Andretti United) and Thomas Randle (Tickford racing). The first Camaro being that of Shane van Gisbergen 5th.

• The Ford's renewed form can be explained by the fact that an urban circuit like Surfers Paradise places less emphasis on the aero and engine disadvantages from which the American coupes suffer. The Australian Supercars technical commission has agreed to modify the aerodynamics of the Mustangs. Thus, the spoiler, the wing and the sides could be modified in order to offer a little more performance to the latter.

• On the track, this resulted in great domination by Cameron Waters (Tickford Racing) during the first stint. Brodie Kostecki (Erebus Motorsport) is on a mission. The championship leader missed his superpole. For having cut too short at the first chicane in his first flying lap, Kostecki had his best time deleted. He was therefore condemned to start from 10th place on the grid. 

• After 18 laps of the race, the driver of the red Camaro was in 7th place, faced with overtaking difficulties on an extremely demanding urban track. Race leader Cam Waters has suffered from quite a bit of bad luck since the start of gen 3. He, however, looks set to collect his first victory since the season-opening round on the streets of Newcastle , last March ! 

• After the first quarter of the race, there are still 3 Ford Mustangs ahead of Shane van Gisbergen. Waters, Payne and Randle in that order seem to be an impenetrable wall for the three-time champion. Brodie Kostecki is fighting to move up. He will have a fantastic match against Chaz Mostert (Walkinshaw Andretti United). 5th for the moment, Mostert offers good resistance to the championship leader. Kostecki, confident and diligent, manages to pass Mostert who takes the opportunity to make his first pit stop. 

• On the 28th lap, Waters, the race leader, comes through the pits. Shane van Gisbergen then took control of the race by getting rid of Matt Payne. When the Triple Eight driver and the last drivers make their stop, Cameron Waters takes the lead of the race.

• After the pit stops the classification is as follows: Waters, Reynolds and Randle are on the provisional podium. Van Gisbergen must control Kostecki's return to less than three seconds behind him. 

• Halfway through the race, it is obvious that making a difference on the track will be complicated. The teams are entering a phase of managing the tires and the quantity of fuel in the cars. In the leading group, Waters seems best placed since he was the one who managed to take his tires furthest in the first stint.  

• Cam Waters and Tickford seem really confident of taking this race to the end at the front of the race. Regularly, Waters returned to the pits to make his final stop with 38 laps to go. Reynolds tries to hold off Waters on his return to the track, but driver Tickford gives him no hope. The good performance of these last stops goes to Triple Eight who managed to gain a place for SvG who passed Thomas Randle (Tickford Racing). 

• Shane van Gisbergen finished the race with fear in his stomach, the driver of the No. 97 Camaro taking a warning for exceeding the track limits one time too many. With 18 points pocketed from Kostecki, SvG cannot afford the luxury of letting such an advantage go. Kostecki is 5th in the race with 20 laps to go. The end of the race focuses on the fight for victory between Waters and Reynolds. With 10 laps to go, van Gisbergen came back very strong, the Penrite Racing driver. It didn't take him very long to take second place in the race. He then has 9 laps left to try to reduce the 3 seconds that separate him from Waters. 

• There are 5 laps left and SvG is less than 2 seconds behind the black Mustang. The Camaro is coming towards Waters. Kostecki is still 5th at the moment. The right move seems possible for the New Zealand giant. 

• 2 laps from the end of the race, the connection is made between the two cars sponsored by the two major energy drink brands. Everything will therefore be decided in the last lap. 

It doesn't get much better than this!

Cam Waters holds off Shane van Gisbergen in a TENSE battle to the flag 🔥🔥 #RepcoSC #Supercars pic.twitter.com/slPh4e4JW8

— Supercars (@supercars) October 28, 2023

• Waters puts all his heart into containing van Gisbergen who tries to find the opening. Waters will maintain the advantage and win his second race of the season. Shane van Gisbergen can console himself with an excellent second place which allows him to reduce the gap with Brodie Kostecki to 104 units. David Reynolds (Grove Racing) completes the podium in this first race.  

• There is one more round to go on the spectacular streets of Surfers Paradise. See you tomorrow morning around 7:45 a.m. for the start of this second round. 

Championship results and standings

Cam Waters ends a long journey through the desert for Tickford Racing ©Supercars

Brodie Kostecki concedes 25 points to van Gisbergen this morning. ©Supercars