Victorian Brodie Waters has returned to podium form with a superb third place finish at round six of the InsureMyRide Australian Supersport Championship, contested alongside the V8 Supercars Championship Series’ L&H 500 at Phillip Island last weekend.
The 18-year-old Waters Racing/Sunstate Racing Suzuki rider put the disappointment of an 11th place finish at Queensland’s most recent round behind him to score third overall behind Team Suzuki’s Troy Herfoss and Triumph’s Christan Casella with 2-3 results for the weekend.
Waters rounded out the front row of the grid after qualifying in fourth position on Friday afternoon with just minimal practice time on his GSX-R600, before racing to a hard-fought second place in the opening 10-lap affair on Saturday afternoon.
A titanic bout with Herfoss and Casella during Sunday’s final race of the weekend resulted in a third place finish, albeit just 0.970sec off the lead after 10 nail-biting laps around the world famous 4.445-kilometre Island circuit.
“I’m not happy with where I’ve finished because I would have really liked to get a 1-2 finish for Suzuki behind Troy,” Waters commented. “But third position is still quite good considering I was battling for the top 15 at Queensland, so I’ve been able to bounce back well and I’m pretty happy with being able to do that. Now we can look toward Tasmania’s final round and see if we can climb to second in the series.”
In an added reward for his efforts at Phillip Island, Waters also clocked the fastest lap of the entire weekend in race two of the Supersport category with a 1:37.492sec set in the closing laps of the round.
Waters placed third overall for his fourth national podium appearance of the year in what has been a breakthrough season for the Mildura local, now holding down a comfortable third position in the series heading into the season finale at Symmons Plains in Tasmania on 12-14 November.
With just two races remaining in the season at the seventh and final round, Waters will be focusing on securing second place in the series as he sits just 14 points in arrears of Casella, also maintaining a slim mathematical shot at the championship crown entering the round.