Supercars drivers are set to dial up on-track aggression on the road to a new-look finals series after Cam Waters set the tone at the Sydney 500.
Waters put Triple Eight rival Broc Feeney to the sword at Sydney Motorsport Park on Saturday to emerge victorious by a staggeringly narrow 0.0308-second buffer.
Pole-sitter Waters pulled off a sensational drive to run down Feeney, having lost the lead when Richie Stanaway's PremiAir Nulon Racing car caught fire early in Saturday's 200km sprint.
On his way back to the top, Waters sent Feeney off the track at turn four as reigning champion Will Brown momentarily surged into the lead.
Waters redressed the incident by giving up his spot and was cleared of fault by race stewards, before running into Feeney's rear bar in the final lap.
The Tickford driver then copped a bump from Brown before crossing the finish line first for his second-consecutive win of the weekend thanks to a slipstream.
Triple Eight driver Brown finished third.
"I wasn't sure if I was going to get a penalty or not, but I didn't want to have that hanging over my head, so I just rolled out of it," Waters said.
While agreeing the late-stage drag race made for a thrilling end, Feeney said the inaction from race stewards over Waters's bump has created confusion for drivers.
Aggression will be key for the championship hunt after the introduction of an elimination series in a major format revamp for the 2025 season.
Series titles will no longer be won based on points accumulation, with the standings to be reset between the three finals rounds.
The new NASCAR-inspired format will also progressively cut the 24-strong grid down to four drivers.
"We've still got that cloud over us, like with contact does there come a penalty?" Feeney said.
"With finals coming in, there's been a lot of talk and over the last couple of years about how they want the rules to go for racing.
"We're going nearly more and more NASCAR-style where in general, you can sort of rub up a little bit more.
"I'm sure everyone in here agrees that's probably one of the best races there's been in a while in Supercars and it came with a lot of running into each other."
Feeney's teammate Brown echoed his sentiments.
"It is a bit of a grey area now," Brown said.
"The race was so exciting tonight, you don't want to penalise anyone. It would've been very disappointing after the race
"But also, if you're doing that from fifth place now, are they going to penalise you?
"That's the hardest thing right now - for us going into the rest of the season, can you get away with that every day?"
Drivers return to the track on Sunday for the final sprint race of the Sydney 500 at 4.05pm (AEDT).
