Cameron Waters and Shane van Gisbergen have each claimed a race win during Sunday’s WD-40 Townsville Supersprint action.
van Gisbergen was the first of the two to stand on the top step after beating Triple Eight Racing teammate Jamie Whincup, while Waters’ victory came at the expense of van Gisbergen after what turned out to be a thrilling contest in race three.
However, the day belonged to van Gisbergen, who produced both a win and runner-up finish, recovering from a mixed day behind the wheel yesterday.
In the first race of Sunday’s two outings, van Gisbergen started on the front row alongside Whincup and took half the race to get past his teammate for the lead.
Once he eventually did get past Whincup, he charged to the finish line to claim his 11th win of the Repco Supercars Championship season despite Whincup piling on heaps of pressure until the chequered flag.
“It (the battle with Whincup) was awesome,” van Gisbergen said.
“We chose to take two tyres to try and get in front, and all I had to do was keep him behind for four laps until he toasted his fresh ones and pulled away.
“It was a pretty cool battle, pretty tense. I’m sure there were some tight moments in the garage.
Behind the two front-runners was a battle just as entertaining as Chaz Mostert managed to defend his position against Will Davison to claim the final podium position.
Starting where they finished, the duo’s fight for third went all the way down to the final corner.
While the top four all enjoyed profitable races in terms of championship points, Waters had one to forget, finishing in 11th place and undoing all the good work from Saturday’s race.
However, the Victorian showed resilience when it came to the final race of the weekend, beating van Gisbergen to the line in what was an epic finish to the weekend.
Having started on pole, Waters lost the lead to van Gisbergen just six laps into the race with the Kiwi showing incredible pace in the opening stint.
However, the Kiwi then lost his advantage during the safety car period later in the race after Tickford Racing chose to bring in Waters one lap later for their compulsory pit stop – a move that saw Waters back in front.
From then on, the 26-year-old led the field for the remainder of the race with van Gisbergen attempting multiple passes until the chequered flag, which Waters defended beautifully.
Davison also found himself just behind the fight for the lead - the Shell V Power Racing driver eventually crossing the finish line in third place and with another podium to his name.
Waters’ epic second win of the weekend sees him move up to third place above Mostert and Davison on the outright standings.
“We had a pretty good race car, we were kinda hanging onto Shane in that first stint,” Waters said.
“Obviously came out in front of him and was pushing as quick as I could.
“We had a mega battle with him, it was really cool. Awesome to get one on him and win that race.
“I had a few more [tricks] up my sleeve… it’s awesome racing Shane, he’s so good at racecraft and racing people.
“There’s always a bit of respect there. We were side by side into Turn 2, and giving each other the shakas, and having a bit of fun with it.”
It was a weekend to remember for Todd Hazelwood, who produced his best ever accumulated weekend in Supercars with three top 10 finishes.
After finishing P9 on Saturday, Hazelwood backed it up with an impressive P5 during Sunday’s first race, before showing plenty of maturity in the second race to hold off a fast-charging Anton De Pasquale for fourth place – his highest finish since a podium at Sydney Motorsport Park last year.
Supercars will now head to Ipswich, with Queensland to host another round, this time in August.