CAMERON Waters drove the fastest lap in history in a Supercar around Mount Panorama to claim his first-ever pole position for the Great Race on day three of the Bathurst 1000.
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It was a memorable lap for the 26-year old from Mildura, who started third last year and has teamed up with two-time Bathurst victor Will Davison for the 2020 1000.
After qualifying fourth on Friday, Waters put together a perfect lap in the top 10 shootout.
Here is what Waters, as well as others who tackled Mount Panorama on day three, had to say:
Cameron Waters, #6 Monster Energy Racing
"That was absolutely awesome. I knew the car had something special in it, but I just had to put it all together," he said.
"This is so special for all the boys at Tickford, they've earned their peace over this whole period we've been away (from home). This will go towards beers Sunday night, doesn't matter how we go tomorrow, but hopefully it's a good one...That was absolutely unreal, I made a few little mistakes but the car was just hooked up.
"The boys have done such an awesome job to give me something like that. Absolutely awesome, and this bloke's (Will Davison) been awesome to be with this weekend."
Scott McLaughlin, #12 Shell V Power Racing
"We made a pretty big change in the car, and it gave us direction. I just enjoyed that, and it was a lot of fun," he said.
"It's a privilege to have time out here by yourself. That was me, but we'll get after that car No. 6 tomorrow."
Fabian Coulthard, #12 Shell V Power Racing
"It was obviously very different conditions to what we had in qually," he said.
"We gave it our best shot, but not quite good enough. It's a very different 'race' car around here, and it's been predictable in the race simulations I've done, so I'm looking forward to tomorrow."
"We couldn't quite get the car to grip up in the shootout, but fifth is okay. Our one-lap pace definitely felt top five, but I think our race car's quite good," he said.
"My little mate Carus has been awesome all week, so we feel ready to go for the big race. People have won from fifth before, and we certainly feel like we can win from there tomorrow."
James Courtney, # 44 Boost Mobile Racing
"Eighth was okay for us. Obviously when you go early in the shootout you want to move up, but we struggled to unlock the one-lap speed in the shootout so I couldn't do much with it," he said.
"On the positive side I'm pretty happy with our race car, Broc had a great co-driver session as well, so I'm confident we're thereabouts, which is all you can ask for heading into this race. We'll wind it up tomorrow and see what the mountain has in store for us."
Jack Le Brocq, #55 Supercheap Auto Racing
"With no shootout for us today was all about getting the race car tuned up, and I think we did a good job finding some more speed from it," he said.
"Obviously tomorrow's a long race so we'll try to play smart and chip away through the day, Moff's been on it from the very first lap which will be really handy for us, and yeah, we'll just aim to work our way forward and set ourselves up for the end.
"You can win from anywhere on the grid here, so we'll see how we go."
Anton De Pasquale, #99 Penrite Racing
"My lap was decent; I didn't get the run I wanted in turn one but other than that I thought my lap was good. I think our car good heading into tomorrow," he said.
"The weather is going to mix things up a bit but I know whatever happens Brodie will carry his own well and be strong in his sections of the race. I think if both of us are able to do a good job then we will be able to get a strong result."
André Heimgartner, #7 NED Racing
"We've just spent today mainly tuning the car and trying a few different things ahead of the race tomorrow. We're fairly confident we have a strong race setup in the car, we've had pretty good pace in that area and the car is nice to drive but we just wanted to spend today trying a few different things and see if we can improve it a little more," he said.
"It's a little weird not being in the shootout and having a lot of spare time today but that meant we could spend plenty of time practising pit stops, doing driver changes and just getting all of our procedures right before tomorrow."
Rick Kelly, #15 Castrol Racing
"The big negative of today is we're not in the shootout, but that brings with it a positive in that we're able to shift our focus completely to the race and that's everything from car setup, fuel economy, driver changes, pit stops and we had a good day getting all of that stuff sorted and also seeing what we're going to do with strategy," he said.
"It's been a really productive day, we've still got some work to do but overall I think that will put us in a good position for tomorrow for the big race."
Jamie Whincup, #888 Red Bull Holden Racing Team
"I'm obviously disappointed in my top 10 shootout result. Looking back, I probably underestimated the wind which increased and there was quite a tailwind down Conrod Straight which made me overshoot," he said.
"I feel like I let the team down unfortunately. All I can do tomorrow is look forward to the race, put our best foot forward and battle it out all the way to the end. It's most likely going to be wet tomorrow, and it's starting to rain already, so it's just a matter of staying out of trouble and making sure we're there at the end."
Shane van Gisbergen, #97 Red Bull Holden Racing Team
"Unfortunately, my shootout lap wasn't too good. I'm a little bit pissed with myself as it looked like we were on for potentially second, but I just got it wrong," he said.
"We'll debrief later tonight and figure out what our strategy is for tomorrow, taking into account some wild weather predicted, but it's a big day tomorrow and anything can happen. My job is to not make any mistakes and hopefully be the first car to get the chequered flag."