Cam Waters has strengthened his tilt for the Supercars title, blitzing the field to claim the first win in Tasmania of his career.
Waters eased past the finish line on Sunday with a yawning six-second gap over championship leader Will Brown.
Once the 30-year-old snatched the lead from Tickford teammate Thomas Randle on turn four of the race, he managed to steer clear of the carnage unfolding behind him on the short and tight Symmons Plains Raceway.
Waters' third win of the season puts him in good stead for the title ahead of two taxing endurance races at Sandown and Bathurst.
"I've probably got my fingertips on it and now the little finger as well," he said.
"Getting closer, but there's still a long way to go and a lot of racing to play for.
"But the enduros are two big races and we usually go pretty strong there."
Brown's 14th podium of the season extends his lead over Walkinshaw Andretti United's Chaz Mostert in the Supercars standings to 81 points.
Mostert, the championship's in-form driver, recovered from 11th on the grid to finish fourth, two seconds behind Bryce Fullwood.
The Brad Jones Racing man skated through the field after Randle locked up into the turn-four hairpin and crashed into Broc Feeney with four laps to go.
"I Bradbury-ed my way through that, didnt I?" Fullwood said, in reference to Australia's famed ice skating gold medallist, after celebrating his second career podium.
"This place is so hard to pass, it's really dangerous in that respect, so I just watched all the action happen and kept my nose clean."
Feeney, who was challenging with his Triple Eight teammate Brown for second, slipped down to 15th, while pole-sitter Randle ended in 18th with a 15-second penalty.
"It doesn't feel real that that's just happened," Feeney said.
A disconsolate Randle tried to apologise to Feeney after the race but was turned away from the Triple Eight garage.
"With Feeney, that was totally my fault," Randle said.
"I just wanted to apologise to Broc."
The stewards had a busy race.
Reigning champion Brodie Kostecki brought up a hat-trick of infringements: one for speeding in the pit lane; another for crashing into Mark Winterbottom as he was pulling out of the pit; a third for bumping David Reynolds on to the hill coming out of the hairpin in the early laps.
That prompted the safety car to pause the race as Reynolds was extricated from the grass.
The teams took the opportunity to put on fresh tyres, and after the resumption Brown jumped Randle into second.
The safety car reappeared soon after when Aaron Love careened into Jaxon Evans on turn one, sending the New Zealander flying into the concrete barrier in a shower of debris.
Evans walked away unscathed, but his Camaro was cooked.
RACE 18 RESULTS:
1. Cam Waters (Tickford Racing)
2. Will Brown (Triple Eight Race Engineering)
3. Bryce Fullwood (Brad Jones Racing)
4. Chaz Mostert (Walkinshaw Andretti United)
5. Jack Le Brocq (Erebus Motorsport)
CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS:
1. Will Brown - 1980 pts
2. Chaz Mostert - 1899 pts
3. Broc Feeney - 1782 pts
4. Cam Waters - 1630 pts
5. Matt Payne - 1419 pts
