By Ebony McQuinn.
The crew are really happy with the performance achieved at their first Chariots of Thunder.
The first night the pace was a bit hard to find, so the results weren't quite as good as had been hoped. Waters finished time trials with a time of 12.503s, qualifying him sixth in his heat of nine. The crew found a bit more pace and Waters finished fourth, however, not quite good enough to qualify for the A-Main. Confusion loomed, as Waters was placed lower in the starting grid for the B-Main than some cars he had finished in front of. Luckily, after the crew chief spoke with the officials it was all sorted out, Waters would start from fourth. The top five from the B-Main would transfer into the A-Main, Waters was able to maintain his position for the 20-laps, not without a bit of struggle. Changes were made before starting in nineteenth, or last, for the A-Main. A lot of stoppages and battles in the A-Main saw Waters fight through the pack to finish thirteenth.
Night 2 saw some better results. Before racing had even begun the crew made the decision to completely change the rear end. Waters ended up time trialling slower than he did the day before with a time of 12.993s, however, he qualified to start one better with fifth in his heat of nine. Not so quick off the line, Waters lost one spot on the first lap. Able to fight it back, Waters moved up to fourth within the next two laps. This left him with seven laps to gain one more spot and qualify straight into the A-Main. Battling with Mitch Wormall in the w97 the whole of the seven laps, Waters just crossed the finish line slightly ahead. The final feature race would be really tough for Waters, slowly moving down through to sixteenth with four laps remaining before disaster struck. After gliding against the wall Waters procured a puncture to the right rear tyre, finishing his night.
While the night ended abruptly everyone at Chief Racing is very happy with their performance, being a relatively new team up against the best sprintcar drivers in Australia. They found the track and its facilities very impressive and are already looking forward to next year. The crew have now completed the two-day drive to Alice Springs with no phone service together and enjoyed some team bonding at the Daly Waters pub. They are all pumped for tonight's Dance in the Desert
Driver's Quote:
Friday
"Great to be back in Darwin for Chariots [of Thunder]. Obviously missed week one, so on the back foot a little bit compared to everyone else. Time trialled sixth and moved forward to fourth from sixth in the heat. I just missed the transfer straight in the A[-Main], so had to start in the B-Main. Started fourth, and finished there too. It stuck me onto the back of the A. Just chasing the car a lot tonight, I think the track caught us off guard a little bit. We were able to improve the car for the final, but it wasn't quite there."
Saturday
"Had a bit better second night, for the last round of Chariots. Qualified fifth which meant we started fifth in our heat and ran third in the first heat. It was a lot of fun to battle in the heat to make the transfer straight into the A-Main. Started from thirteenth. Unfortunately, puncture the right rear tyre from hitting the wall. Overall though it was a really good track, had a lot of fun up here in Darwin. A massive thank you to the team for putting in all their effort- and to all of our sponsors. On to Alice [Springs]."
Gallery:
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