Why Waters was actually a winner in Melbourne Supercars event

It might sound a little strange to suggest that one of the winners from the Supercars races at Albert Park last weekend was Cameron Waters.

After all, his clean sweep at Sydney Motorsport Park last month marked Waters as the driver to beat to the championship. Three poles, three wins and three fastest laps in the three races is an achievement rarely seen in a series like Supercars, where the cars are very similar technically.

Added to that, the three races that were completed at the Australian Grand Prix venue were won by three different drivers, and not one of them was Waters. So the handy points lead the Tickford Ford Mustang driver carried into Melbourne evaporated in the heat and he now sits seven points in arrears of the new points leader and defending Supercars champion, Triple Eight’s Will Brown.

Only five drivers scored more points than Waters did, and his results were sixth, sixth and eighth in the three races. On the other hand, Brown finished those contests second, third and first. But considering how Waters achieved those results that he did, it was definitely a positive weekend.

Waters had to scratch and fight his way forward in two of those races, after qualifying 22nd and 19th in races one and three, while Brown started from second for each of those.

Then the race that might have tipped the scales in Waters’s favour on Sunday was abandoned due to the inclement Melbourne weather; he would have started from fifth while Brown, after a qualifying disaster and then a three-place grid penalty for a driving infraction, was buried back in 22nd on the grid. When the officials took the decision to not start the race, Brown’s smile would have been wide, especially since at that particular moment, Melbourne’s fickle Sunday weather was not actually that terrible…

It would be harsh to suggest that Brown was lucky to hold on to his points lead but, on this occasion, fortune leaned his way.

Those two apart, there was much to note at the grand prix circuit. Seven qualifying sessions into a long season, only two drivers have scored pole positions, the three Waters grabbed in Sydney trumped by Broc Feeney’s four in Melbourne. This display once again emphasised that the Triple Eight youngster really is something special around the sweeping grand prix track.

Likewise, Matt Stone Racing continued its infatuation with the venue. Last year Nick Percat scored the team a win in his Chevrolet Camaro; this time around he was on the podium twice, a statistic that would have looked remarkable if not for the fact that his second place on Friday came behind his MSR team-mate Cam Hill.

The Canberra driver’s breakthrough victory looked utterly composed, and Percat may have won for the team again on Saturday had his power steering not faded then surrendered in the stifling Melbourne heat. Percat did what he could to wrestle the car to third place, using his knees to leverage the ultra-heavy steering over the final lap. He would have been grateful for two things; that two of the last three corners are right-handers so he could deploy his left knee to the steering wheel, and that his 6’3” height allowed him to do that.

Brodie Kostecki was the best of the rest (and of the Mustang drivers) for Dick Johnson Racing. Whatever it is about Albert Park, it just does not suit a Ford. The last 15 Supercars races around the lakeside circuit have been won by either Holdens or Chevrolets; to find the last Ford winner, you have to go all the way back to 2019, when Scott McLaughlin won for what was then DJR Team Penske ahead of Tickford Racing’s Chaz Mostert.

As the cars and equipment sail the Tasman Sea to New Zealand, the bitumen patchwork of Taupo Motorsport Park awaits. Waters and Brown will be looking forward to a much more straightforward weekend, and everyone is hopeful of cool but fine weather.