No alarm bells for Cam Waters, Broc Feeney despite dip
Waters 20th, Feeney 23rd in Friday practice, topped by Jayden Ojeda
Feeney was a whopping 0.86s off the pace, with Waters 0.72s down
The sight of the Cam Waters and Broc Feeney Fords being stuck down the order at The Bend was an unusual one — not to the drivers, at least.
On a Friday led by the PremiAir Racing Camaro of rookie Jayden Ojeda, the Mustangs of Waters and Feeney went missing at day’s end.
Through 30 minutes of practice to end the first day of the AirTouch 500 at The Bend, Feeney was a whopping 0.86s off the pace, with Waters 0.72s down.
For the Waters/Mark Winterbottom car, it was a stark contrast to how the day began, with the Monster Energy Ford second. Winterbottom then put the Mustang into fourth in the co-drivers session.
As the track rubbered in, the Waters Ford fell away. The drop from second to 20th from Practice 1 to Practice 3 was the biggest drop by any car on the day.
Per Supercars data analyst Scott Sinclair, Waters’ best lap improved just 0.015s between the sessions. In contrast, the field improved 0.27s to 1.44s.
Repco Sprint Cup winner Feeney, meanwhile, didn’t fire a shot all day. The Feeney/Nick Percat Ford was 18th in Practice 1, with Percat 16th in the co-drivers session. In Practice 3, Feeney was 23rd, his worst practice result of the season.
Feeney had a big moment exiting Turn 9 and lost nearly 0.4s. However, without the error, an 1:16.94s would only have placed him 13th.
Feeney — who claimed pole for last year’s race — wasn’t concerned, quipping on social media: "No purple sectors for us, but making progress… tomorrow gets serious.”
On the broadcast, Waters was also composed, saying: "Obviously, we were expecting to be a lot better on a green tyre, but we did a heap of changes today and lots to go through.
"I think we're probably not too unhappy with our race car. Just gotta go through it all and we'll figure out… still got a whole day of practice and qualifying. It’s early days.”
Feeney holds a slender 30-point lead over Matt Payne, who ended Friday ninth ahead of Feeney’s teammate Will Brown.
Supercars return to the track from 9:50am local time/10:20am AEST.
