Waters targets pace after Mustang changes

Cam Waters says his next mission is making his Monster Ford fast after coming to grips with the updated Mustang aero package in Townsville.

Waters was third in Practice 2 on Friday at the NTI Townsville 500 behind Jack Le Brocq and Bryce Fullwood.

Le Brocq, who won the most recent race in Darwin, stole top spot away at the death in the 30-minute session.

The aerodynamics of the Gen3 Mustang were tweaked ahead of this weekend’s NTI Townsville 500.

Supercars’ technical department worked in collaboration with homologation teams Dick Johnson Racing (Ford) and Triple Eight Race Engineering (Chevrolet), and D2H Advanced Technologies.

The position and angle of the Mustang rear wing was modified, along with an increase in the size of the boot spoiler.

Waters was pleased with his Practice 2 pace, claiming his car was “horrible” in Practice 1 with the new changes.

“Braking was our Achilles heel before, we kind of tuned things into the car to make that better,” explained Waters, who took a Townsville pole last year.

“We got here and the thing was Mr Plow, I couldn’t turn it. You’ve got to undo a few things and get the car back into a normal window.

“It’s nice they found a few things and backed up what we were saying, so that was awesome.

"Credit to Supercars and DJR and everyone that put these changes forward to help us. We’ve just got to work out how to make it go fast now.”

Le Brocq put a margin on the field thanks to fresh rubber, with the Truck Assist Camaro 0.2s ahead of Fullwood.

The form guide remains scattered somewhat, with series leader Brodie Kostecki making an error on his flying lap.

Despite the new Gen3 cars undergoing a downforce reduction, Le Brocq’s 1:13.420s was just 0.001s slower than the best time from Practice 2 in 2022.

The 2023 event, however, is being held on Dunlop’s Soft tyre, with the 2022 event held on Hard tyres.

Regardless, the new Gen3 cars are still a handful, with Shell V-Power Racing Team’s Will Davison suggesting attacking the kerbs is an all-new challenge with the new cars.

“Just trying to get these cars to ride the kerbs like last year’s car isn’t going to happen,” Davison said.

“Just trying to find that compromise. Just then, we had one run and had a super amount of turn, that was a tick.

“We we had no rear grip, took too much turn away, didn’t get rear lateral drive grip. That’s where they're a real handful compared to last year’s car.”

Cars will return to the track on Saturday for ARMOR ALL Qualifying at 10:15am AEST, followed by the Top Ten Shootout at 12:00pm.

The first 88-lap race of the weekend, Race 16, will commence at 2:40pm.