Waters hangs onto pole in wet Taupō Shootout
Rainfall helps Cam Waters top maiden Taupō Shootout
Waters will share Race 7 front row with points leader Will Brown
Rain intensified after Waters, Brown set timed laps
Intensifying rain midway through the Boost Mobile Shootout has helped Ford star Cam Waters secure pole for the historic first race at Taupō International Motorsport Park.
Waters, who scored pole for the second race of the Melbourne SuperSprint, will share the front row for the inaugural ITM Taupō Super400 with championship leader Will Brown.
The Shootout began in wet conditions, before rain worsened after Brown, who was fourth driver out, set his timed lap.
By that time, Waters (#6 Monster Energy Ford) was on provisional pole with a 1:24.7415s ahead of Brown (#87 Red Bull Ampol Chevrolet) and local driver Andre Heimgartner (#8 R&J Batteries Chevrolet), with Tim Slade (#23 PremiAir Nulon Chevrolet) fourth.
From there, Ryan Wood (#2 Mobil 1 Truck Assist Ford), Cameron Hill (#4 Supaglass Chevrolet), Will Davison (#17 Shell V-Power Ford), Chaz Mostert (#25 Mobil 1 Optus Ford), Anton De Pasquale (#11 Shell V-Power Ford) and Matt Payne (#19 Penrite Ford) were unable to mount a challenge as conditions worsened.
Waters took the good luck, having slumped to 16th in the points standings through the first two rounds of the 2024 season.
"It was a pretty wild qualifying, half-dry and half-wet," said Waters, who claimed his 24th career pole, and third in New Zealand.
"It was full-wet then, and obviously got pretty lucky with it getting wetter throughout the session.
"In saying that, the car was pretty hooked up and felt comfortable straight out the gate. I've had a lot of bad luck this year, so I'll take a bit of good luck then, the team did a great job."
Slade was the first driver out and clocked a 1:25.5591s, before Heimgartner (1:35.2789s), Waters (1:34.7415s) and Brown (1:35.2426s) all improved.
As Wood powered on, the rain intensified over the circuit, and set in as the final five drivers rolled out of pit lane.
The end margin between Waters and Brown was 0.5011s, with Heimgartner and Slade the only other drivers within a second of the Monster Mustang.
The 60-lap Race 7 will start at 1:05pm AEST/3:05pm NZST.
