Waters' Race 9 tumble gifts points lead, streak to Brown

In a single day, Cam Waters returned to the podium for the first time since his Sydney sweep, reclaimed the points lead, and lost it again.

On what was a rollercoaster first ever dual compound Super 440 race day in Taupō, Waters went from impressive second in Race 9, to being 40 seconds away from victory in Race 9 and missing the top 10.

Waters was classified 14th in Saturday's Super Soft tyre race, which was won by former teammate Chaz Mostert after a thrilling battle with Brodie Kostecki.

With Will Brown crawling to seventh, albeit 24 seconds from victory, the championship lead changed hands for the third time in as many races, and second in the Triple Eight driver's favour.

Crucially, the result ended Waters' streak of consecutive top 10 race finishes at 19, a streak that began in Townsville 280 days ago.

The longest streak now sits with Brown, who is up to 18 consecutive top 10s dating back to last year's Sydney event in July. However, Brown is also at risk of seeing his own streak of 14 rounds with a podium come to an end.

Behind Brown, Matt Payne, Will Davison and Ryan Wood are on streaks of three top 10s in a row.

For Mostert, winning a race on the Super Soft marked a clear turnaround from last year, turning a 12.8 Super Soft qualifying average from 2024 into a front row start on Saturday.

Waters, who had a 6.6 Super Soft qualifying average last year, qualified eighth for Race 9, and held eighth until lap 11. Waters and title rival Will Brown battled in the first stint, with the damage done to Waters in a six-lap period.

After starting lap 11 in eighth, Waters was passed by Anton De Pasquale, Richie Stanaway, Andre Heimgartner, Jack Le Brocq, Kai Allen and Cameron Hill before making his stop on lap 18.

As the pit cycle ended, Waters was a net 13th, which became 14th by the chequered flag when Cameron Hill passed him with two laps to go.

Waters' average lap time for the race was a 1:29.69s, ranking him 12th and 0.56s per lap slower than Mostert.

Supercars will return to the track on Sunday at 10:35am NZST/8:35am AEST with Boost Mobile Qualifying.