Monster Energy Racing’s Cameron Waters has succeeded in doing what no other Supercars driver has done by holding Shane van Gisbergen at bay to take his first victory of the season at Winton.
Waters led from start-to-finish, however it was hard earnt as van Gisbergen pressured the Ford Mustang during the second stint of the race following the pit stops.
The battle culminated in a last lap duel, which fell in favour of Waters as van Gisbergen moved to the inside at the penultimate corner. Contact was made entering and exiting the corner, but this resulted in damaged steering for the Red Bull Ampol Racing driver forcing van Gisbergen to settle for second.
Following through on his speed demonstrated through practice and qualifying, David Reynolds finished third for Kelly Grove Racing.
At the beginning of the Will Brown made the best start and gave Waters a bump in the rear NASCAR style into Turn 1 giving the Monster Energy Racing Mustang the edge.
Brown attempted to pass van Gisbergen around the outside of Turn 1 and succeeded, but this hampered his exit as the championship leader proceeded to take back the position.
However, Brown was not a factor at the end of the race due to a wheel incorrectly fitting at his pit stop requiring the Boost Mobile Racing ZB Commodore to be re-jacked to try again. This was successful, but the wheel rotated leaving Brown to serve a drive through penalty.
Waters held a 1s lead at the end of the opening lap as van Gisbergen led an angry pack consisting of Brown, Chaz Mostert, Lee Holdsworth as teammate Reynolds progressed through the field, running Anton De Pasquale wide and dropping the Shell V-Power Racing driver to ninth.
Mostert was the first to pit for rears on lap 12, then Brown followed for his disaster of a stop.
Red Bull Ampol Racing pitted van Gisbergen on lap 14 and Waters followed the next circuit around, with the Mustang driver emerging in front.
What followed was 20 laps of pressure from van Gisbergen, which Waters managed to withstand taking Tickford’s first win of 2022.
Reynolds nearly ran out of fuel, running out just after the race had finished.
Fourth place was Mostert ahead of Holdsworth as Kelly Grove Racing finished within the top five.
Scott Pye rewarded his team after it rebuilt his Nulon ZB Commodore from the Perth incident with sixth position ahead of Brodie Kostecki, De Pasquale, Andre Heimgartner and Broc Fenney.
There were no retirements though Mark Winterbottom experienced an electrical fault on the opening lap in his Irwin Racing ZB Commodore to finish 21st.
Qualifying for Race 14 kicks off proceedings tomorrow at 9:40am AEST.