How Tickford turned it around for Waters
Reigning in set-up changes proved successful in the rain for Cam Waters on Sunday.
Waters qualified third and finished fourth in Sunday’s Sydney finale, which was won by Chaz Mostert.
It was a marked difference for Waters on his Saturday; he qualified a lowly 22nd and battled to 11th.
To the next round in Tasmania, the Monster Energy Mustang driver is sixth in the standings, 87 points behind Mostert.
At the surface, Waters is still better off than 2021; he left last year’s season opener 117 points off the lead after a Race 1 power steering drama.
Speaking after the race, Waters’ race engineer Sam Potter revealed the #6 crew wound back on set-up to avoid a repeat of Saturday.
“We had our struggles last year,” Potter said.
“We thought we found a bit of a direction… the weather didn’t help us figure out if we’d made any gains.
“Today’s performance, the weather played into it… Cam’s a lot happier.
“Really, we’re just struggling with understeer. No matter what we seem to tune it with, tools that we use at other tracks… we made it worse.
“We come back a bit [on set-up] today and found a happier spot, but it’s on the edge.”
Waters was in the fight for much of Sunday’s race, and crossed the line just 0.54s behind third-placed Anton De Pasquale.
Waters crossed the line fourth
The next stop is Symmons Plains, where Waters scored two poles but infamously fell short of victory both times.
Regardless, Waters was pleased with fourth after a frustrating Saturday.
“We ended up fourth, which we’re super happy with after yesterday,” he said.
"We were really competitive in qualifying in mixed conditions, the shootout was really good, and the car was a lot better in dry racing, so we definitely moved forward.
"We still have a bit of work to do as a team, we should’ve been better than we were this weekend, but we’ll bounce back in Tassie.”
It was a tougher story for the rest of Tickford’s drivers; James Courtney recorded finishes of 10th and 17th, with Thomas Randle 20th and 14th.
Randle was also embroiled in a Saturday incident with Brad Jones Racing’s Andre Heimgartner.
The most pain at Tickford was reserved for Jake Kostecki, was classified 24th on Sunday after a spin.
Kostecki spun out in the last corner while heading to pit lane on lap 29 and stalled the engine.
A starter motor issue prevented the car from re-firing, ultimately bringing out the first Safety Car of the race.
“When I was about to box I had some leaders behind me and I spun in the last turn,” Kostecki said.
“We had a little starter motor issue that put us a couple laps down which sort of ended the race for us.
"We’ll get that fixed up for the next round, but we learned a lot this weekend."
The season will resume at the NED Whisky Tasmania SuperSprint. CLICK HERE to purchase your event tickets.
