Waters storms to Townsville pole
Cam Waters dominates Boost Mobile Top Ten Shootout
Tickford star beats Chaz Mostert by 0.3s in Townsville
Thomas Randle, Will Davison complete all-Ford top four
Cam Waters has put himself in the box seat to take out the NTI Townsville 500 opener after dominating the Boost Mobile Top Ten Shootout.
The Tickford Racing driver claimed his fifth Townsville pole position and fourth of the season, following poles in Melbourne, Taupō and Perth.
Waters will share the Race 13 front row with former teammate Chaz Mostert, with Thomas Randle and provisional pole-sitter Will Davison completing an all-Ford top four.
The Monster Energy Ford was the benchmark in the one-lap dash, with Waters a whopping 0.3123s quicker than next best Mostert.
With Broc Feeney eighth and Will Brown 13th after missing the Shootout, Saturday's race looms as the most defining yet in the 2024 title chase, with Mostert and Waters losing ground in recent rounds.
Feeney opened proceedings with a 1:14.4153s, with Matt Payne (1:14.9087s) and Bryce Fullwood (1:15.8161s) both making errors en route to ninth and 10th.
Andre Heimgartner moved the benchmark to a 1:14.2963s, which was lowered by Jack Le Brocq's 1:14.2194s.
Anton De Pasquale, the 2023 Sunday winner, turned in a 1:14.3734s to go to third, which ultimately became seventh as the final four drivers rolled out.
Mostert (1:14.0355s) and Randle (1:14.0467s) were split by just 0.0112s before Waters made the biggest statement of all, with Mostert, Randle and Davison split by just 0.06s.
"Track grip seemed a little bit down from qualifying, everyone was making little mistakes," said Waters, who is sixth in the championship
"I knew the car was fast, I just had to hit my marks, no lock ups, no stupid little mistakes.
"The car was amazing so massive thank you to my whole team, Tommy did a really good job as well, so it's nice to have both Tickford cars up there.
"We had a tough Darwin but we really regrouped and worked out what we did good and bad, and we rolled out with a super fast car here this weekend.
"Hopefully it's nice on its tyres and we can get the race win."
The first 88-lap, 250km race of the weekend, Race 13, will start at 2:40pm AEST.
