Waters: Battles cost chance at De Pasquale

Cam Waters believes he had a chance at second in Race 20 had he not been caught up in earlier battles.

Waters came home third in both NTI Townsville 500 races, with the finale ending in high drama.

Anton De Pasquale and Shane van Gisbergen clashed at the final corner disputing victory.

De Pasquale attempted to redress, and van Gisbergen trailed him across the line.

De Pasquale was later penalised to the tune of five seconds over the incident.

All the while, Waters motored to the chequered flag and was just 1.6s off De Pasquale when the results were corrected.

It was Waters’ 13th straight top 10 finish, but it could have been even better had he not battled with Chaz Mostert.

Mostert overhauled Waters for third with 21 laps to go. The duo had to contend with the lapped Lee Holdsworth.

With five laps to go, Waters regained third; at that time, De Pasquale was 10.7s up the road.

That blew out to 13.1s when the leaders clashed, and Waters reeled them in as they crawled to the line.

“Happyish, happy with the consistency,” he said.

“Got a heap of points, that was really good.

“My car balance was totally different to yesterday; we probably overcooked it.

“Obviously still competitive; good over one lap, had a fun day with a few battles.

“If I didn’t get held up in a few of those battles, I probably would’ve had a chance to get Anton with his five-second penalty.

“It is what it is.”

It came after pole man Waters was forced on the attack early in the race after a poor start.

De Pasquale won the race to Turn 2, where Waters put a move on Will Davison.

Davison and Scott Pye later clashed at Turn 3, bringing out the Safety Car.

Waters downplayed the move, saying "it’d be rude not to go down the inside”.

“I got a bad start… Will left the door open,” he said.

“I thought it’d be rude not to go down the inside.

“I didn’t think it was a big move, just got down the inside, plucked first, turned her and away we went.”

Waters is 330 points behind van Gisbergen heading to the next round in Tailem Bend.

The 2022 season will resume at the OTR Bend SuperSprint on July 30-31. Purchase your tickets now.