Hi to all you Supercars Fans around the world!
On the weekend of July 19 – 21 2024 the Panasonic Air Conditioning Sydney Supernight was held. It was round 7 of the 2024 Supercars Championship.
The event was held at Sydney Motorsport Park formerly known as Eastern Creek Raceway.
Sydney Motorsport Park was first opened on the 10 November 1990 however, the main event came along in 1992 when the V8 supercars made their first appearance at the circuit. The venue has been host to events such as motorcycle racing, A1 Grand Prix, Touring cars and Muscle Car Masters.
Just 2 days before this year’s event on July 17th 2024, James Courtney announced that he will be retiring from fulltime Supercars racing at the end of season 2025. He is now 44 years old and has been a full time driver since 2006. If he completes next season he will reach the 20 year milestone in Supercars. That is quite an achievement.
The pre-race sessions started on the Friday. Results were as follows:
- Ryan Wood was fastest in Practice 1
- Cameron Waters was fastest in Qualifying
- Cameron Waters was fastest in the Top Ten Shootout
In Race 15 Cameron Waters started on pole position with Thomas Randle alongside him.
As they took off Thomas Randle got the jump and led into turn 1 for the first of 51 laps.
As the pack got to turn 2 there was contact between Mark Winterbottom and Macauley Jones. Winterbottom’s car suffered damage and he had to head straight for the pits. Macauley Jones was just a victim in the process but he did manage to keep going.
The top 3 cars were reasonably close to each other. Chaz Mostert started to apply the pressure on his former teammate Cameron Waters in a bid for second place.
It wasn’t long before Chaz Mostert found his opportunity and before turn 7 passed Cameron Waters. Chaz Mostert was now in second but was still 2.079 seconds behind race leader Thomas Randle.
On lap 13 Brodie Kostecki was the first to take his pit stop from 24th place.
As they reached into the 20 something laps Thomas Randle pitted from the lead, followed by Chaz Mostert and then Broc Feeney. While Randle pitted it was Cameron Waters who assumed the lead.
In the middle of the race there were 4 cars yet to still pit. Once they did Chaz Mostert took the race lead. He was followed by Thomas Randle and Anton de Pasquale in third place.
Will Davison showed how eager he was and did the fastest lap of the race, 131.505 seconds.
Chaz Mostert’s experience showed as he defended the lead throughout the rest of the race.
Although he couldn’t fully break away from the pack, Chaz Mostert still managed to cross the finish line 2.6 seconds ahead of Matt Payne. A further 4.5 seconds later Thomas Randle came in to take 3rd place.
Results for Race 15
1st Chaz Mostert – Walkinshaw Andretti United
2nd Matt Payne – Grove Racing
3rd Thomas Randle – Castrol Racing
In Race 16 Will Davison started on pole position. Alongside him was Chaz Mostert.
As they took off Will Davison got the jump and led into turn 1 for the first of 51 laps. At turn 4 Will Davison ran wide giving Chaz Mostert the opportunity to pounce and get to the front of the field.
At turn 8 Broc Feeney ran extremely wide causing him to drop all the way down to 23rd place. It just didn’t seem to be his weekend.
On the next lap at turn 2 David Reynolds got up the inside of Matt Payne to enter the top 10 spots.
It didn’t last long, and Matt Payne re-took 10th place back.
The positions up front had not changed except for Will Brown who made up 1 spot to hold 4th place.
Chaz Mostert had extended his lead out to 2.3 seconds over Will Davison in P2. Matt Payne unbelievably got into 7th spot and stayed side by side to Anton de Pasquale down the entire straight.
David Reynolds got into a bind and was trying to avoid leaving the track. Unfortunately, he made contact with Ryan Wood. Brodie Kostecki was behind the two and had no chance to avoid giving David Reynolds a helping bump off the track. What a mess, Kostecki and Reynolds were now at the back of the pack. Ryan Wood fell back to 13th place (unlucky).
The first car to pit in this race was Broc Feeney. He returned to the track in 25th place.
Cameron Waters and Anton de Pasquale pitted on lap 25.
There were still 3 cars yet to pit. Once they took their mandatory stops, Chaz Mostert assumed the lead.
Once again Chaz held his place and even clocked the fastest lap of the race,131.302 seconds.
With 9 laps to go car 26 Ritchie Stanaway had a clutch issue causing his wheels to spin whilst hoisted on the air-jacks in the pits. They tried to resolve the issue but in the end chose to send him back out to finish the race and earn the points. A much better option than a DNF (Did Not Finish).
Chaz Mostert kept edging away from the rest of the pack and the front runners became more spread out. Mostert took advantage of the clear track and crossed the finish line 8.3 seconds clear of Cameron Waters in second place. It was another 8.9 seconds back to Will Brown in 3rd place.
It was great weekend for the Walkinshaw Andretti United team and their driver Chaz Mostert winning 2 out of 2 races this weekend. It was his third win in the 2024 Supercars season.
A look at the Driver’s Championship points after this event shows Will Brown still holds the number 1 spot. He leads by 105 points over Chaz Mostert in 2nd. Broc Feeney’s bad weekend moved him down a spot from 2nd to 3rd. Things are getting mighty interesting!
On the Team’s Championship scoreboard Red Bull Ampol Racing still lead by 805 points over Walkinshaw Andretti United.
Results for Race 16
1st Chaz Mostert – Walkinshaw Andretti United
2nd Cameron Waters – Tickford Racing
3rd Will Brown – Red Bull Ampol Racing
The next event is the Ned Whiskey Tasmania Supersprint 16 – 18 August 2024.