hero-img

Waters hungry for breakthrough podium

14 Jun 2017
Young gun hoping positive test will propel Monster Ford into top three
3 mins by James Pavey
Advertisement

Rising star Cameron Waters is hopeful that a positive pre-event test will help propel him to his first podium of the season this weekend in Darwin.

The 22-year-old finished fourth last time out at Winton – the fourth time he has finished one place shy of the podium since moving into the main series full-time last year.

Waters finished second in the 2015 Sandown 500 alongside Chaz Mostert, but a podium at a single-driver event has remained elusive.

The Monster Ford tested alongside its three Prodrive stablemates at Winton last week in what all four drivers have described as a positive outing.

Hidden Valley has also been a happy hunting ground for Prodrive in the past, winning at least one race at the venue in three of the four years since the Next Generation chassis was introduced.

“I’ve had plenty of fourths lately and I’m getting that consistency so that’s really good but I’m so hungry for that first podium,” said Waters ahead of the weekend.

“Hopefully from the things we’ve tried at the test day we can make the car that little bit better and get our hands on a trophy.

“It’s good to go to Darwin because it’s nice and hot but it’s really hot in the car. It’s hard for us as drivers but it’s a really fun place.

Advertisement

“The track’s got a little bit of everything, a massive long straight and some really tight corners. It’ll be really close up there but if we can get the car working well we’ll have a shot.”

Prodrive's Chaz Mostert, Mark Winterbottom and Waters are currently fifth, seventh and 10th in the championship respectively.

Mostert has headed the team’s charge against the Shell V-Power and Red Bull juggernauts this season, but slipped 199 points from the lead after a gearbox failure at Winton.

Prodrive team principal Tim Edwards is confident that his team made a step forward at its test but concedes that the Shell and Red Bull teams are also likely to have improved.

“We believe we have made improvements but we have to remember that the two main teams that we’re competing against also had their test days over the break so there are no guarantees,” he said.

Mostert meanwhile heads to Darwin as a recent race winner thanks to victory in the Australian Production Car Championship at Winton last weekend and is eager for a repeat in his Supercheap Falcon. 

“The test day was really good for us. I think we’ve found a few little things so I’m really just keen to get up north,” he said. 

“We got a podium there last year and I think if we can line everything up again we’ll have a good shot at standing up there again this year.”

Related News

Advertisement