Waters wins, SVG extends lead: Race 11 takeaways

Cameron Waters has finally joined the winners’ list in 2021, with the Tickford Racing driver holding off Shane van Gisbergen in the OTR SuperSprint finale.

Waters outlasted the championship leader in the 24-lap Race 11, with the #6 Monster Energy Racing driver scoring career win No. 3.

It was Waters’ first win in 224 days, his last coming at the same venue last September.

Waters and Anton De Pasquale, who won the day’s earlier race, joined Andre Heimgartner in helping Ford clean sweep the three-race weekend.

As uncovered by V8 Sleuth, the weekend was the first in history that three different Ford drivers shared the wins on a three-race weekend.

WATCH: RACE 11 RECAP

It was the 75th race win by Tickford Racing, coming in the team’s 253rd round start.

It was also the 401st win for the Blue Oval, with De Pasquale claiming win No. 400 earlier in the day.

Van Gisbergen, who shadowed Waters to the chequered flag, managed to extend his championship lead despite failing to win a race.

In fact, after winning the opening six races of the season, van Gisbergen has gone winless in the last five.

It has been worse before for the Kiwi, who went winless for 19 races between the Newcastle finale in 2019 to the second Townsville event last year.

Van Gisbergen’s championship lead is now bigger than it has been after any event in 2021, with the Kiwi taking a 190-point buffer over Red Bull Ampol Racing teammate Jamie Whincup to the Winton SuperSprint.

WATCH: WATERS DISCUSSES DROUGHT-BREAKING WIN

The Kiwi, who celebrated his 32nd birthday on Sunday, claimed two podiums on Sunday, as did Will Davison, who scored another trophy with third in Race 11.

It was Davison’s fifth podium of the season, and 59th of his career.

Davison, who drew level with Peter Brock on 212 round starts, is now one short of James Courtney and Fabian Coulthard’s tie for 11th on the all-time podiums list.

The Repco Supercars Championship field will return to Victoria for the Winton SuperSprint across May 29-30. Tickets are available here.

The event will be broadcast live on Foxtel and will be streamed on Kayo with highlights on 7 and 7 Plus.