The sun was shining as the Townsville crowd rolled into Reid Park ready to kick off Day 1 of the Townsville 500.

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The team across the three garages spent the first part of the morning pre briefing to best understand the challenging street circuit and the sessions that lied ahead.

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As we rolled out for practice, it was a really confusing time for the 55 side of the garage as the car was well off the pace. Randle was reporting the cars steering was a little off and just not responding to some of the inputs that he was doing.

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All the crew were focused on the 55 car during the session with limited laps because of the issue. The team threw everything at the setup of the car during the practice session as they attempted to learn the issue presented.

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For Reuben and Waters, runs on the board were delivered as planned, with the #6 Car hovering around the top five for the whole session.

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Goodall did one run on green tyres and dropped a time in the middle of the pack, before a red flag halted the session which ended early.

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PRACTICE 1 RESULTS

#5 Reuben Goodall: 12th

#6 Cam Waters: 7th

#55 Thomas Randle: 21st

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The team debriefed on car 55 and threw a bit of a hail mary at a steering rack change to fix the issue Randle was experiencing.

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The guys jumped straight into action with the task requiring extra resources and a strong team action as time was off the essence with qualifying not too far away.

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For the Wildcard garage, they continued to change some setups as the team and Reuben continued to learn with the car. Although there was positive vibes through the team as every learning point was trending the right way.

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When qualifying rolled around, there was a hold your breath moment as Randle left the lane and started his first run. The tension was short lived as Randle jumped to the top three early and delivered a super clean lap to easily progress to the second phase.

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Waters was only a matter of inches ahead in the first qualifying, clocking double purples on his first flying lap. Toward the end of the first qualifying, Waters went two tenths quicker than the field and unlocked another level of speed in the car.

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Goodall was consistent over the session, again learning plenty with the team in the early stages. Unfortunately, he was just a couple of tenths off progressing to the next stage and locked his place in for the race.

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For Randle and Waters, they progressed into the second phase of qualifying, once again rolling strong out of the gates before pitting for the final set of green tyres.

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As the cars pushed back and begun their laps, the screens lit up with plenty of green and purple sectors but unfortunately both hit a bit of rear grip issue toward the end of the laps.

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It was a mega start to the weekend as the team have continued the pace from Darwin on the streets of Townsville.

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QAULIFYING RACE 20 RESULTS

#5 Reuben Goodall: 24th

#6 Cam Waters: 2nd  

#55 Thomas Randle: 5th

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Race 20 was the first major test of the weekend with all three cars geared with the things learnt in the morning.

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Off the line, Waters, Randle and Goodall all made positions in a chaotic run down to turn one. Waters got off to business by leading a couple of tenths once they came back through pit straight.

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Randle was in a tight battle pack around the street circuit but with clean racing, was able to hold position well inside the ten during the early stages.

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Goodall jumped an impressive 4 positions in the early stages, although through the next phase of the race dropped a couple of places back, being overtaken by the full time drivers behind.

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A chaotic pit stop sequence occurred with a late switch of cars called into the lane, but the team stepped up and executed two strong stops for Waters and Randle.

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A slightly slower for Goodall hurt his track position, dropping a few seconds behind where he was meant to come out.

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The later part of the race was tense with Waters out in front although being chased by  Kostecki with the fresher tyres.

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As the chequered flag fell, there was three positive story lines for the Tickford Racing team. Waters secures yet another win and the pace is there from Darwin, Randle completely flipped the pace from practice to finish in a strong position, and Goodall brought home a straight race car and valuable laps under his belt.

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The team are in a really positive mindset heading into the weekend, we know we need to step some things up and prepare for the field to come back hard tomorrow.

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We roll out on track for Qualifying for Race 21 at 11:25AM AEST.

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