by Ebony McQuinn.
Only three rounds into the 2023-2024 season and already the Chief Racing team is showing strong progress, last night's performance being the best so far.
The V6 GTS Freight Management car came out of the gates with strong pace. Cameron Waters going to the top of the time sheets of his group in his first lap with a time of 11.010 s. Although, while a fast time, Waters was unfortunately beaten for Quick Time with the final qualifying, Jamie Veal of the V35, dropping a time of 10.558s. Neverless, the crew held a lot of confidence for the rest of the night.
A reverse top 6 format for the heats races saw Waters start out of 5 in the first heat of the night. Waters was quickly relegated to 6th on the start, as Veal got the jump and drove past. It didn't take Waters long to recover the spot, passing Adam King in the V48 by the second lap. This would be Water's only pass of the heat race, crossing the finish line in 5th, Veal taking out the victory.
Points so far would see Waters qualify straight into the A-Main, starting in P13. While he'd gone straight into 12th off the line, Waters wasn't making any progress until the first and only restart of the race with 15 laps to go. Waters was making passes every lap, navigating into 6th postion with 9 laps to go. After battling Lachie McHugh in the VA71 for 5th with 3 laps to go, Waters was beaten to the line by four hundreths of a second by Ryan Newton in the Q77, placing him in 6th.
Driver's Quote:
"Had a great run in the sprintcar over the last 3 weeks. Having 3 weeks in a row has been awesome, each week we're getting better and better. Tonight at Warrnambool, we were second in time trials; the car was pretty nice. Started 5th in the heat after the invert, ran 5th, which put us in the back of the A-Main. So had a bit of work to do, but the car was great. I managed to pass a few cars, rip around the fench and finish 6th. Just got pipped at the post for 5th. I had a great race and it's been a lot of fun so far this season. Massive thanks to the crew and all our sponsors."
Gallery:
Photos by Ebony McQuinn
