Picture Credit: Twitter
Cameron Waters, the Australian motor racing driver for Tickford Racing, was forced to flee his burning car, while leading the Darwin Triple Crown race in the Supercars Championship. The incident happened at the Hidden Valley Raceway in Darwin, Australia on the fifth lap of the race, when the number six Ford Mustang GT of the pole-sitter unexpectedly caught fire on the track.
It led to an unexpected winner at the Darwin Triple Crown race, namely Mark Winterbottom, who is a veteran racer in the Supercars Championship. The 42-year-old, driving the number 18 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for Team 18, won his first race in the ongoing motor racing series. He held off the youngster Broc Feeney of the Triple Eight Race Engineering, driving the number 88 Holden ZB Commodore, to achieve his first victory in the championship after seven years.
Notably, the incident involving Cameron Waters happened at the top of the start finish straight on lap five of the race. He reported fire to his team before pulling over the Ford Mustang GT at the exit of turns 1 and 2 at the Hidden Valley Raceway, moments before the car was engulfed in flames. Moments later, the Tickford Racing driver used the fire extinguisher to put out the fire, as the marshalls joined in to take over the proceedings.
Watch the incident here:
While talking to the media in the immediate aftermath, Cameron Waters was pissed off about the incident, especially because he was feeling good in the car as the leader of the race. He was quoted as saying, “I’m pissed off to be honest, but it is what it is. I got a good start and was looking after the tyres and the car was feeling good and going down the front straight and I had a fire in the footwell and thought this isn’t going to be good.”
“By the time I got to (turn) one it was all up (in flames), so I just had to get out as quick as I could. It was on fire down the front straight and then I got to turn one and the engine had shut off and had a long pedal and there was fire everywhere,” remarked the Australian driver.
Meanwhile, Will Davidson, in his number 17 Ford Mustang GT for the Dick Johnson Racing, finished the Darwin Triple Crown race in third place on the podium, behind Mark Winterbottom and Broc Feeney.
