Broc Feeney has made the perfect start to the Triple Eight Race Engineering’s return to Ford by scoring victory in the opening race of the Dunlop Sydney 500.
Feeney led a Ford 1-2-3 in the season opener, with the Blanchard Racing Team backing up its qualifying pace through Aaron Cameron scoring his maiden podium in second and James Golding was third.
Golding started from pole, but it was Cameron leading the way off the start until the pit stops when the Red Bull Ampol Racing squad effected a successful undercut strategy for Feeney as he emerged in the lead after the Blanchard Racing Team duo pitted.
Pitting later, Golding dropped behind Waters after his stop, but was able to snatch back third.
Feeney replicates his team principal Jamie Whincup, who won the team’s first race as a Holden operation in 2010 at Abu Dhabi.
Ford’s locked out the top five as Matt Payne made a late move driving the lead Penrite Racing Mustang to demote the Monster Energy Racing entry of Waters to fourth.
The first non-Ford came in the form of Anton De Pasquale for Dewalt Racing in sixth as Will Brown followed in seventh to give the Red Bull Ampol Racing a double top 10 for its Ford return.
Brad Jones Racing entered its new era strongly courtesy of Andre Heimgartner’s eighth steering the R&J Batteries Racing Toyota Supra to lead the Japanese contingent in its return to Australian touring car competition.
Thomas Randle backed up teammate Waters in ninth, while Brodie Kostecki rounded out the top 10 after being penalised a 5s penalty for contact with Zach Bates.
Payne’s teammate Kai Allen was the biggest mover in the race to finish 11th ahead of David Reynolds, lead rookie Jayden Ojeda, Bates, reigning champion Chaz Mostert and Cam Hill.
Out of the rookies, Ojeda led the way from Bates, Jackson Walls in 18th, Rylan Gray was 20th and Jobe Stewart 23rd in what was a poor race for Erebus Motorsport as teammate Cooper Murray was the sole retirement due to power steering failure.
The Repco Supercars Championship action continues at 3:40pm for Race 2 qualifying followed by a Top 10 Shootout and the main event at 7:35pm (all times AEDT).