Waters, legends praise Cindric's strong first Supercars impression

Austin Cindric mightn't have lit up the timing screens on Thursday at the bp Adelaide Grand Final, but the American certainly turned plenty of heads.

Driving the #5 Ford Performance Racing Mustang, Cindric ended the day 23rd of the 25 entries, ahead of two-time Supercars race winner Jack Le Brocq and PremiAir Racing rookie Jayden Ojeda.

The NASCAR Cup Series star's impressive debut came despite some doubting the move for Cindric to test at the fast, flowing layout of The Bend Motorsport Park.

However, the 2020 Xfinity Series champion went about his work in his first taste of the Adelaide Parklands Circuit, with Tickford stablemate Cam Waters (who ended the day in first, 1.1s ahead of Cindric) singing the American's praises.

"I think it's an awesome start for him, obviously he had a plan that he had to stick to in that session, and he did that," Waters told media.

"I think the great thing for him this weekend is that he's got multiple sessions to build up to it, go through data, get back in the car.

"We went and did some testing at Tailem and he was really good around there straight off the bat.

"I think he's going to surprise a fair few people this weekend, and we'll see how he goes."

Also impressed were Supercars legends Mark Skaife and Garth Tander.

Skaife, a Supercars Hall of Famer and five-time champion, noted that the wildcard entrant didn't burn through an extra set of tyres to gain more lap time in the closing minutes of the session.

"Great job. For him to end up 23rd with a 20.7, they didn't put an extra set of tyres on," said Skaife.

"He was a second away from the fastest guy, but without a set of tyres. That is a really credible performance, that is an excellent job."

Tander, who announced his retirement after winning his sixth Bathurst 1000 in what proved to be his final career start - had an early indication of what Cindric could produce.

Tander was on track with Cindric at the ride day immediately following the previous round at Sandown, which was the 2022 Daytona 500 winner's first drive of a Supercar.

"I followed Austin on the Monday at Sandown, after the ride day. It was about half an hour of running, so he was pretty new to the car, new to the track, and he was on it straight away," said Tander.

"I followed him for a couple of laps, and he let me past, and then I went and had a chat to him about the kerb usage and being more aggressive with the kerbs, because that's the sort of thing you need to do here at Adelaide.

"You need to get the car on top of the kerb, not just on the ramp of the kerb, but he was putting the car in all the right spaces, he was right foot braking right from the start.

"His throttle application was nice, there was no wheelspin, and I knew straight away as soon as I followed him, within half an hour of driving this car, he was going to be good. He was certainly not going to disgrace himself.

"To finish 1.1 away after the first half an hour, could you imagine what the first 10 minutes of that session would've been like for Austin? Information overload.

"Like, 'What is going on?' I'm on the wrong side of the car, everything's wrong.' Just to be able to calm yourself down and get within 1.1 by the end I think is a really commendable effort."