Gold Coast 600: Overflowing drain interrupts final practice

The drain overflowed a third of the way through the 30-minute session, soaking the road at the Turn 1 chicane. 

The water was difficult to spot in the evening light, the first three drivers to come across the puddle – Garry Jacobson, Jamie Whincup and James Courtney – pitched into spectacular slides by the unexpected lack of grip.

The session was quickly red-flagged so the drain could be fixed and the standing water swept away.

“I couldn’t work out what happened,” said Courtney.

“I couldn’t really see the water because of the glare at that point and it just barked up and went sideways. I grabbed a handful of wheel and hung on.”

Whincup added: “Crazy stuff, I think someone’s emptied the bath and it’s ended up on the track.

“I came around and all of a sudden the track is wet and we’re all out of control.

“It was only last week we were in the fence from something unlucky, it almost happened again.”

The appropriately-named Cam Waters ended up topping the day's final practice session, the Tickford driver sneaking under the 1m10s mark with a 1m09.954s.

That left him 0.09s clear of Triple Eight pair Shane van Gisbergen and Jamie Whincup.

“We weren’t running the best tyre through the session, then we put a good tyre on and I think it’s more in me, just trusting the car’s going to do his job,” said Waters.

“There’s a little bit more in it, but the car’s pretty comfortable to drive. [Michael Caruso] was pretty comfortable in his session, so we’re thereabouts.

“You’ve got to be on the limit here to be fast. I think every run I had the mirror pushed in and asked the boys to push it back out.

“We might have to put a little spring on that to push it out tomorrow.”

David Reynolds was fourth ahead of Tickford's Lee Holdsworth and Chaz Mostert, while runaway points leader Scott McLaughlin was just seventh after struggling with kerb strikes at the business end of the session. 

“Just trying too hard. Today is probably the day to have a crack and see how much you can take,” said McLaughlin.

“I definitely found that, I think it happened every lap. It’s just me trying too hard, the car is really good, but I need to tone my driving down a little bit.”

Walkinshaw pair Scott Pye and James Courtney were next, Fabian Coulthard rounding out the Top 10.

Third practice results:

Cla	Driver	Car	Time	Gap
1	Cameron Waters Michael Caruso	Ford Mustang GT	01'09.953
2	Shane van Gisbergen Garth Tander	Holden Commodore ZB	01'10.046	00.093
3	Jamie Whincup Craig Lowndes	Holden Commodore ZB	01'10.096	00.143
4	David Reynolds Luke Youlden	Holden Commodore ZB	01'10.119	00.165
5	Lee Holdsworth Thomas Randle	Ford Mustang GT	01'10.175	00.222
6	Chaz Mostert James Moffat	Ford Mustang GT	01'10.293	00.340
7	Scott McLaughlin Alexandre Prémat	Ford Mustang GT	01'10.300	00.347
8	Scott Pye Warren Luff	Holden Commodore ZB	01'10.325	00.372
9	James Courtney Jack Perkins	Holden Commodore ZB	01'10.356	00.403
10	Fabian Coulthard Tony D'Alberto	Ford Mustang GT	01'10.387	00.433
11	Andre Heimgartner Bryce Fullwood	Nissan Altima	01'10.501	00.548
12	Will Davison Alex Davison	Ford Mustang GT	01'10.587	00.633
13	Mark Winterbottom Steven Richards	Holden Commodore ZB	01'10.587	00.633
14	Nick Percat Tim Blanchard	Holden Commodore ZB	01'10.774	00.821
15	Anton De Pasquale Will Brown	Holden Commodore ZB	01'10.857	00.903
16	Todd Hazelwood Jack Smith	Holden Commodore ZB	01'10.921	00.967
17	Rick Kelly Dale Wood	Nissan Altima	01'11.035	01.082
18	Jack Le Brocq Jonathon Webb	Holden Commodore ZB	01'11.069	01.115
19	Richie Stanaway Chris Pither	Holden Commodore ZB	01'11.179	01.226
20	Tim Slade Ash Walsh	Holden Commodore ZB	01'11.244	01.291
21	Macauley Jones Dean Canto	Holden Commodore ZB	01'11.361	01.408
22	Garry Jacobson Dean Fiore	Nissan Altima	01'11.448	01.495
23	James Golding Richard Muscat	Holden Commodore ZB	01'11.495	01.542
24	Simona de Silvestro Alex Rullo	Nissan Altima	01'11.682	01.728
25	Brodie Kostecki Jake Kostecki	Holden Commodore ZB	01'12.110	02.156
View full results