Waters on Tickford’s journey to the top step
In the space of four rounds, Tickford has experienced all the ups and downs of Supercars, but has been rewarded with a Cam Waters victory in Wanneroo.
Waters was fast throughout the Perth SuperSprint, qualifying and finishing in the top three in both races.
Despite a year where crashes and loose wheels have hurt the Monster Mustang, things finally went the way of the #6 on Sunday at the Perth SuperSprint.
After leading from pole, Waters lost control at Turn 7, which gifted the lead to Chaz Mostert.
Although Mostert took the chequered flag first, a 5s penalty for an unsafe release in the pits opened the door for Waters and he stayed close enough to get the win.
It was a reverse of 2022 when Waters suffered a penalty for track limits and lost a win to Will Davison having taken the chequered flag first.
After a “shit start” to 2024, Waters said it is an enormous lift for the Tickford team to return to the top step.
“It means so much for everyone,” he said.
“This year the vibe in the team has been amazing, everyone is really positive but we have had so much bad luck and all these things going wrong that don’t usually happen.
“It was nice to go my way, nothing had gone my way this year, so I will take them however I can get them at the moment.
“We probably didn’t quite have enough car speed early on, but the way we have all grouped together and worked at it to get better race cars makes me super proud to be part of this team.
“It has been an awesome weekend and what I like is we were consistent across every session
We rolled out with a fast car and was consistent across the weekend.
“I think we have a pretty good window we are working in now and we have a test day after this which will really help us.”
Reflecting on the moment at Turn 7 where Waters led the field on the opening lap, but ran off, the Mildura driver said he almost spun.
“I kind of took it a little bit easy being cold tyres and everything, so I went in there and nearly spun out. It was really weird,” he said.
“Some others might have done a similar thing but not as bad. After that I kept my head down and tried to keep up with Chaz.”
Although after the moment put Waters on the back foot, he felt the car pace stepped up in the final stint.
“The first stint we struggled compared to Chaz, being a little bit heavy,” Waters said.
“But after that we really came on, the car was a bit lighter and looked after its tyres well, which was completely different to yesterday.
“I tried to take a tenth or two a lap from Chaz and once I got it to around 2-3s I kept it safe from that point on.”
Waters also revealed the learnings from the tricky Taupo surface played a massive role in finding its best at Wanneroo.
“Each weekend this year we have taken a different car to each track,” he said.
“Taupo with the different track grips really exposed our strengths and weaknesses really badly.
“Some areas it was great in the wet which told a story to us and it what we learnt from that weekend.”
Image: RACE PROJECT
2024 Perth Supersprint (AEST)
Friday, May 17
Practice 1: 1: C. Mostert 55.0930 2: N. Percat +0.1753 3: J. Courtney +0.1779
Saturday, May 18
Practice 2: 1: W. Brown 54.9036 2: C. Waters +0.0190 3: T. Randle +0.0739
Qualifying 1: C. Mostert 54.5628 2: R. Wood +0.1411 3: C. Waters +0.1759
Race 9: 1: C. Mostert 2: W. Brown 3: C. Waters
Sunday, May 19
Practice 3: 1: C. Mostert 2: W. Brown 3: W. Davison
Qualifying: 1: C. Waters 2: C. Mostert 3: W. Brown
Race 10: 17.45 (55 laps)
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