Waters survives late rain to seal Sydney sweep

Cam Waters has taken control of the 2025 Repco Supercars Championship by completing a dominant clean sweep of the Thrifty Sydney 500 - Opening Round.

Despite late rainfall, the Tickford Racing star controlled Sunday's Race 3 from start to finish to deliver a stunning pole-to-win hat-trick at Sydney Motorsport Park, also setting the fastest lap in all three races.

Waters staved off a challenge off the line by Triple Eight Race Engineering rival Broc Feeney through Turn 1, with Will Brown getting around his teammate on the opening lap. Brown ultimately came home a distant second, with Chaz Mostert charging from 10th to third.

Feeney fell to fifth by race's end after being passed by Brodie Kostecki in the closing laps amid intensifying rain, with Matt Payne, Anton De Pasquale, James Golding, Will Davison and Jack Le Brocq rounding out the top 10.

"How awesome is that? That's such a mega weekend, and such an awesome way to start 2025," Waters said.

"I thought we were going to have fast cars this weekend, but not that fast. It's awesome to be able to convert it when you've actually got a fast car. I can't thank my team enough for giving me something this good, and the pit stops were good, and we executed well.

"I knew they were going to be lying to me [about the weather], they always do. I had a really good margin there, and I could kind of back it off with five to go and just bring it home.

"Even when it was kind of a little bit wet at the end there, the car was still really fast. The rain was actually quite nice, it cooled the cabin temps down a little bit, it was pretty hot in this Monster Mustang."

As the lights went out, Feeney looked to have won the jump, but a strong secondary launch helped Waters hang on as the field raced to Turn 2 for the first time. Feeney's efforts opened the door to Brown, and got through at Turn 5.

From there, Waters began to open up a margin on the reigning champion, with Brown three seconds behind by the time the pit sequence began on lap 10.

James Courtney kicked off the first round of stops on lap 10, followed by Richie Stanaway on lap 11, Mostert and De Pasquale on lap 12, and Payne and Nick Percat on lap 13. At the time of his stop, Mostert had jumped Will Davison and David Reynolds to sit eighth.

All the while, dark, brooding clouds loomed in the background as rain fell over Sydney's west. Despite the high ambient temperatures, teams began to prepare wet tyres.

Golding, Reynolds, Ryan Wood and Jaxon Evans stopped on lap 14, and Davison on lap 15. Feeney was first of the leaders to stop on lap 16, with Mostert taking time away from the front-runners on fresh tyres. Feeney rejoined just ahead of Mostert, who had made a genuine gain.

In response, Waters and Brown stopped, with Kostecki staying out until lap 19. Waters and Brown rejoined; through their first lap at speed, Waters led Brown by 3.1s, with Feeney 1.4s behind his teammate.

With the pit cycle complete, Waters led Brown by 4.2s, with Feeney, Mostert, Payne, Kostecki, Golding, Davison, De Pasquale and Courtney rounding out the top 10.

As the weather closed in, Waters pressed on and opened up a 8.3s lead over Brown by lap 34. The longer first stint propelled Kostecki past Golding and Payne, with the 2023 champion closing on Mostert for fourth. On lap 34, Kostecki got down the inside and made the pass stick, only for Mostert to stop immediately.

Brown was brought in on lap 35, and Waters, Feeney and Golding on lap 36. Kostecki again pressed on, with Matt Stone Racing the first victims of the new fuel churns. Cameron Hill was released with the churn still attached, the Canberran forced to hold at pit exit as mechanics retrieved it.

Kostecki was brought in on lap 39 as light rain intensified. As Waters blazed on, Feeney caught Cooper Murray, who carted the Triple Eight driver wide at Turn 10. As Mostert got through, Feeney went down the inside, only to send the Erebus rookie into a spin at the final corner.

As Murray restarted his car, a brief fire sparking under the #99 Chiko Chevrolet. It got worse for Murray, who was hit with a 15-second penalty over the incident.

Waters reclaimed the lead with 10 laps to go, with Brown 8.5s down as Feeney reeled in Mostert. All the while, the rainfall continued to intensify, with Fullwood finally making his second stop with seven to go as drivers began to slide around the circuit.

The track was enveloped in rain with four laps remaining, with Kostecki putting Feeney under serious pressure. After a number of attempts, Kostecki rounded Feeney up around the outside of Turn 6 in a stunning move to clinch third.

It mattered little to Waters, though, who cooled off and cruised home to win by 6.286s, taking his Supercars career wins tally to 18.

Waters claimed a perfect 315-point weekend score, and will carry a 60-point lead over Brown to the next round in Melbourne. Mostert and Feeney are third and fourth, 65 and 99 points down.

The 2025 Repco Supercars Championship will resume at the Melbourne SuperSprint, which will feature at the Formula 1 Louis Vuitton Australian Grand Prix 2025 on March 13-16.