Waters: Tickford stood up to the test

Cam Waters says Tickford Racing’s Darwin pace proves the team belongs up the front.

Waters backed up his dual Winton wins with a victory, pole and podium at the Merlin Darwin Triple Crown.

On an otherwise bruising weekend for the team, Waters was a shining light and presence at the front.

An error in Saturday qualifying forced a comeback in the race, before Waters returned on Sunday a new man.

Pole and victory followed for Race 17, before he capitalised on a late clash between Shane van Gisbergen and Will Davison to finish third in the finale.

Considering Tickford hadn’t won in Darwin since 2015, Waters was pleased to help the team convert.

“This was the test, this weekend,” he said.

“We always struggle in Darwin; we rolled out okay, but weren’t quite at the sweet spot.

“Saturday, we should’ve qualified better but I made a mistake, that was all on me.

“Today, I made up for it.”

Waters now heads to Townsville, where he scored two race wins in the SuperSprint round.

With van Gisbergen’s troubles, he is now 288 points from the series lead.

"We qualified a fair bit better, it was awesome to get a pole and a race win,” he said.

'This was the test, this weekend'

“Then to get on the podium again after starting fourth was awesome.

“Even though yesterday wasn’t that great I think we showed we belong up front which is positive.

"Bring on Townsville, obviously we went pretty well there last year so we’ll be keen to try and back it up in a few weeks.”

Team boss Tim Edwards praised his spearhead driver’s performance.

“Obviously Cam and the Monster Energy team did a brilliant job today,” he said.

“We really wanted to take home a didgeridoo so to come out with a win and a third from them is fantastic.

“We’ll debrief on that back in Melbourne, reset, and go again in Townsville, no doubt with the goal of backing up the strong results we had last time we were there."

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