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Supercars Adelaide: Kostecki seals title as Waters leads Ford 1-2-3-4

While three Ford Mustang drivers, Cam Waters, David Reynolds and Thomas Randle fought for the win in the penultimate race of the year Kostecki, who started from pole position in his Erebus Motorsport Chevrolet Camaro, drove to a conservative sixth place, to assure himself of the title with Sunday’s race still to run.

The battle for the drivers’ title lasted less than 20 seconds, when Shane van Gisbergen’s Triple Eight Chevrolet got caught up in an opening lap clash between Will Brown and Anton De Pasquale.

Erebus driver Brown had been fed into the outside wall in a typically chaotic first run through Turn 4 and as his Camaro rebounded back onto the track, eventual winner Waters was fortunate to avoid any contact. But this left van Gisbergen completely blind to the danger and the ensuing contact left him with race-ending front suspension damage.

Brown, who will replace van Gisbergen at Triple Eight next season, described the moment as "difficult" but dismissed any wrongdoing from De Pasquale.

Waters seized the lead from Reynolds mid-race and built a small gap to take his third win of the season by 0.67 seconds.

Van Gisbergen's early exit left Kostecki needing only to finish the race to earn the title of provisional champion. Aware of this, the Australian played things safe and put up little fight as he slipped to P6 by the chequered flag.

“It has not really sunk in yet," he said. "It’s been a whirlwind of a year, we have worked so hard to do what we have done this year.

Cameron Waters, Tickford Racing Ford Mustang GT (Photo by: Edge Photographics)

“[Team owner] Betty [Klimenko] has been a part of this since she started this venture 13 years ago. It’s great to be able to deliver this.”

Celebrating his third race win of the season and his second since the post-Bathurst parity changes were made, Waters said: “To win here in Adelaide, it's probably one of my favourite circuits of the year.

“To win with the Ken Block livery was very, very special. [It is] probably the best car Tickford have given me. Great to come out on top.”

Fresh from a win on the streets of the Gold Coast Reynolds had to be satisfied with second.

“I had a good battle with Cam and Randle and Brodie as well,” he said. “Water’s car was heaps quicker than me. I wish I could have won that race but the team has done a fantastic job all weekend.

Randle started from third and took his fourth podium finish in the last eight races.

“Cam drove faultlessly,” he said, after allowing Waters past early in the race, “he was catching me there and it was obvious to do that. He went on to catch Davey, hopefully we can go better tomorrow.”

Race winner Cameron Waters, Tickford Racing Ford Mustang GT (Photo by: Edge Photographics)

Chaz Mostert took fourth place in his Walkinshaw Andretti United Ford, ahead of Triple Eight’s Broc Feeney, who took fifth from Kostecki with three laps to go.

While the drivers’ title is safe Erebus and Triple Eight both face all-night rebuilds of the Brown and van Gisbergen cars, with the teams’ title still on the line in the final race of the season.

The Supercars will take to the track for Qualifying at 10:15am, Adelaide time, before a Top 10 Shoot-out at 12:05pm.

The final race of the season, over 78 laps, is due to start at 2:45pm, Adelaide time [4:15am GMT].

Full Supercars Adelaide Race 27 results

 
 
     
Driver Info
 
 
 
   
Cla Driver Car Laps Time Interval Retirement Points
1 Australia C. Waters Tickford Racing Ford Mustang GT 78

-

    150
2 Australia D. Reynolds Penrite Racing Ford Mustang GT 78

+0.671

0.6708

0.671   138
3 Australia T. Randle Castrol Racing Ford Mustang GT 78

+15.023

15.0234

14.353   129
4 Australia C. Mostert Walkinshaw Andretti United Ford Mustang GT 78

+24.956

24.9561

9.933   120
5
B. Feeney Red Bull Ampol Racing
Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3 78

+26.184

26.1843

1.228   111
6
B. Kostecki Coca-Cola Racing by Erebus
Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3 78

+29.919

29.9189

3.735   102
7 Australia W. Davison Dick Johnson Racing Ford Mustang GT 78

+34.228

34.2278

4.309   96
8 Australia J. Courtney Tickford Racing Ford Mustang GT 78

+35.787

35.7872

1.559   90
9 New Zealand A. Heimgartner Brad Jones Racing Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3 78

+36.244

36.2441

0.457   84
10 Australia S. Pye Team 18 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3 78

+37.196

37.1958

0.952   78
11 Australia M. Winterbottom Team 18 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3 78

+39.165

39.1651

1.969   72
12 Australia T. Hazelwood Brad Jones Racing Ford Mustang GT 78

+47.341

47.3405

8.175   69
13 Australia J. Golding Nulon Racing Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3 78

+48.589

48.5891

1.249   66
14 Australia J. Le Brocq Truck Assist Racing Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3 78

+57.634

57.6335

9.044   63
15
D. Fraser Tradie Racing
Ford Mustang GT 78

+58.244

58.2442

0.611   60
16 Australia T. Slade Nulon Racing Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3 78

+58.579

58.5789

0.335   57
17 Australia M. Jones Pizza Hut Racing Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3 78

+1'00.351

1'00.3509

1.772   54
18 Australia N. Percat Walkinshaw Andretti United Ford Mustang GT 78

+1'15.710

1'15.7102

15.359   51
19 Australia B. Fullwood Brad Jones Racing Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3 78

+1'16.170

1'16.1696

0.459   48
20 Australia J. Smith SCT Logistics Racing Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3 76

2 laps

    45
21 Australia A. De Pasquale Dick Johnson Racing Ford Mustang GT 76

2 laps

    42
22
C. Hill Truck Assist Racing
Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3 74

4 laps

    39
23
M. Payne Penrite Racing
Ford Mustang GT 73

5 laps

    36
  Australia W. Brown Coca-Cola Racing by Erebus Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3 0

 

  Retirement 30
  New Zealand S. van Gisbergen Red Bull Ampol Racing Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3 0

 

  Retirement 33
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