Nash: Monkey off Tickford's backs with win

Tickford Racing boss Rod Nash feels the "monkey is off our backs” with victory in Perth, but doesn’t want to get “too cheeky too soon."

Cam Waters benefited from a Chaz Mostert penalty to claim his and Tickford’s first victories of the season.

Waters and teammate Thomas Randle were in the hunt on all three days of the event, with Randle knocked out of podium contention on Sunday by points leader Will Brown.

For Nash, having speed in both Tickford Mustangs has the team feeling it has “turned a corner” with its package, but doesn’t want the team to get too far ahead of themselves.

Waters is doing the same, saying he is "hanging on by my fingernails" and has to "do a lot of winning now," given he is still 381 points behind Brown.

“I think we’ve turned the corner now with the Mustang. With all the changes we’ve just had to keep learning,” Nash said.

“At Darwin we’ll do the same as Perth, be rock-solid in both qualifying and the race, and then see where we are in the championship.”

Waters had taken poles in Melbourne and New Zealand, but incidents prevented him from converting in the race. Earlier, there was the wheel off in Bathurst, compounding his woes.

Randle, meanwhile, had shown glimpses of speed with Shootout appearances in Bathurst and New Zealand, and fourth-place finishes at the Mountain and the Grand Prix.

Heading to Darwin, where Waters won in 2022 and claimed pole last year — only for a fire to end his hopes — Tickford has both drivers in the top 10, and is third in the teams’ standings.

“It was a typical Cam Waters weekend. He had the pace all through the weekend. We wanted to just come to Perth and play it simple,” Nash said.

“Thomas Randle still had a good weekend with a good bag of points. And his qualifying is right up there.”

Waters is fourth and Randle equal eighth heading to the betr Darwin Triple Crown on June 14-16.