By Ebony McQuinn.
After the disappointing results the night before, the crew spent the day stripping the car and finding all the problems. Their hard work paying off as the car showed much better pace from the start of the night, finishing 4th fastest in his group. Water's time qualified him for 4th in his first heat.
Unfortunately, after some contact on the first lap, causing a yellow flag, Waters was forced to the back of the field. With the improved pace of the car, Waters managed to salvage a finishing position of 6th. The second heat was much more successful. Starting from 7th, Waters was able to push the car through traffic and battle his way to 4th. Waters secured enough points to start out of 14 in the A-Main. The team were much happier with the night's performance in going straight to the A-Main, compared to the struggles the night before in only qualifying for the B-Main and being unable to finish high enough for the A-Main.
A few adjustments were made to the car before starting the A-Main. Unfortunately, the start wasn't what the crew was hoping for as contact with Waters would see him drop back 4 spots. On-track problems would continue to plague Waters as he was sent to the back of the field again for making contact, just as he started moving up again, resulting in him being lapped by the leader. Eventually making ground again, Waters finished in 8th position, with damage on both wings. While 8th wasn't quite was the crew had hoped for, they are still wrapped with the result considering the on-track difficulties. They now will return to Victoria in preparation for the second week of Chariots of Thunder and debuting in Alice Springs.
Chief's Quote: "Overall we are excited with what we learnt with the car and Cam keeps getting better with more seat time. disappointed we are not here for the first week of Chariots [of Thunder] as I think what we need now is more time on track to sharpen our game up. Looking forward to returning for the 2nd week of Chariots knowing we have the car in the window we want."
Driver's Quote:
"Had a much better night. The crew did an awesome job getting the car sorted after the troubles from night one. I felt a bit more comfortable too. We had an OK run through the heats which put us out of 14 for the A-Main. Started to move forward in the A[-Main] but got put rear after I was deemed the cause of the yellow. Manage to work my way back to 8th with a speedy car. A massive thank you to the crew and our sponsors. Excited to get back up there for week two of Chariots of Thunder."
Gallery
Big thanks to Scott Kernahan from SK MotorPics for taking these photos for us.