Tickford Racing
19 SEP 2020
Jack is back on the podium, finished second in Race 25
The undercut worked in Jack Le Brocq's (No. 55 Supercheap Auto Ford Mustang) favour on Saturday, as the 28-year old took second place in Race 25 of the 2020 Virgin Australia Supercars Championship at The Bend Motorsport Park. Le Brocq's Lap 5 pit stop gave him clean air and enough time to cycle into the fight for the win once all cars made their compulsory stop, and following a fierce battle with Cars 97 and 12, came across the line second to score his second career podium at the main game level.
Cameron Waters (No. 6 Monster Energy Ford Mustang) finished fifth on Saturday from 11th on the grid, the recovery made more impressive after an early battle with team mate Lee Holdsworth (No. 5 Truck Assist Ford Mustang) saw Waters run off the track and lose several positions in the race's first few laps. The result is Waters' eighth top five in the last ten races, and moves him into third in the Supercars drivers' championship.
After starting ninth, Holdsworth also used an early stop to vault into podium contention, and was running fourth when he was spun by Car 17 at Turn 11 on Lap 21, dropping him to 14th. Car 17 received a post-race time penalty for the incident, and James Courtney (No. 44 Boost Mobile Ford Mustang) received a time penalty for a separate incident, promoting Holdsworth to 12th in Race 25.
Electing the opposite strategy from Le Brocq and Holdsworth, Courtney pitted on Lap 14 and emerged in 18th, then used his fresh tyre advantage to climb back to 10th by the chequered flag. However, Courtney was assessed a five second penalty post-race for contact while passing Car 25 on the final lap, dropping him to 15th in the race result.
The Bend SuperSprint 1 continues Sunday with two qualifying sessions and two races to conclude the weekend. Race 26 and 27 qualifying take place back to back from 9:20 a.m. ACST, followed by Race 26 at 11:55, and Race 27 at 2:25 p.m.
DRIVERS' VIEW
No. 5 Truck Assist Ford Mustang
Lee Holdsworth
Practice 1: 1m48.63s, 4th
Practice 2: 1m49.47s, 10th
Race 25 Quali: 1m08.69s (Shootout), 9th
Race 25 Finish: 12th
"We didn't quite have the pace in qualifying but the car came alive in the race. We were trucking along and were on for a top five and maybe a podium, then Scotty (McLaughlin) tagged me with a few laps to go. It's frustrating but on the positive side I was pretty happy with the car we had. We've been chipping away at our race car for a long time and we've finally got it in the window today which felt great. We just have to tune it up a bit for quali in the morning, and we should be able to run up front again tomorrow."
On incident with Car 17:
"I think he's driving in desperation for some reason, I don't know why he would, he's got the championship nearly in the bag. It's a bit disappointing, I gave him room, saw him go for the pass, I gave him a car width on the inside and he just tagged me mid corner when I've got as much load on the rear as possible and it spun pretty easily from there."
No. 6 Monster Energy Ford Mustang
Cameron Waters
Practice 1: 1m48.54s, 3rd
Practice 2: 1m49.77s, 13th
Race 25 Quali: 1m48.96s (Shootout), 11th
Race 25 Finish: 5th
"It's been a wild old day, with weather this morning, the race, tyre blisters, just heaps going on. I didn't have the best run in the Shootout, the conditions caught us off guard I think, we didn't get the best track conditions which hurt us. In the race I think we had a relatively pacey car, I didn't have the best of starts, then Lee and I banged doors and I went off, which wasn't smart of us, but we managed to claw our way back to P5 which was a bit of fun. I was passing cars, guys were crashing into each other, yeah, it was a fun race."
No. 44 Boost Mobile Ford Mustang
James Courtney
Practice 1: 1m49.56s, 17th
Practice 2: 1m50.34s, 17th
Race 25 Quali: 1m49.64s, 14th
Race 25 Finish: 15th
"The race was good, it was exciting. My initial launch wasn't too bad, and then someone rear ended me on the first lap and we got filed a ways back. We ran pretty long because I told Brendan (Hogan, engineer) that tyre degradation was going to come into play, we put three tyres on and then came back through the field. It was good fun, good battles, there was a lot of action everywhere. I had a good battle with Chaz (Mostert) at the end, which he was a bit upset about, but we'll press on and see what happens overnight."
No. 55 Supercheap Auto Ford Mustang
Jack Le Brocq
Practice 1: 1m48.82s, 8th
Practice 2: 1m49.27s, 7th
Race 25 Quali: 1m48.54s, 7th
Race 25 Finish: 2nd
"I had a blast, it was awesome racing. I'm a bit annoyed at myself, I just put my car in the wrong spots trying to pass Shane (van Gisbergen), but I was going for the win. B-rad (Brad Wischusen, engineer) was in my ear after I tried to pass on the outside telling me to sort myself out, but it's great to be back on the podium. Car was great, pit stop was great, you live and learn with those battles, but yeah, I'm still stoked with the result."
Tim Edwards, Team Principal
"What a crazy day that was. First off is massive congratulations to Jack, he drove extremely well. He may have gotten a bit greedy trying to pass Shane, but to put him in a fight for the win and see him battle like that, it's exactly what we want to see from him, and hopefully a sign of things to come. Cam continues to punch out top fives which is what he needs to do for his championship position, so we're really happy with that, and obviously Lee and JC had frustrating results which are stories in themselves. That said all four cars were pretty strong, we easily could have had a win, two cars on the podium, and four in the 10 which is no easy task. We'll do our homework tonight and try to back it up tomorrow."
