Waters' extraordinary swing after 2024 nightmare

Cam Waters and Tickford Racing were the winners on track in Sydney, but also the biggest winners when it comes to year-on-year jumps in the championship.

After the Thrifty Sydney 500 - Opening Round, Waters sits pretty with the maximum 315 points, 60 ahead of closest rival, reigning Supercars champion Will Brown.

It's a remarkable turnaround for Waters, who was unwell at last year's season opener in Bathurst. He lost a wheel in Race 1 and finished both races outside the top 10, leaving the Mountain with 96 points, 192 behind Brown.

From being 192 down to being 60 up, Waters has pulled off a staggering 252-point swing.

“Obviously Bathurst last year was very poor for us, everything was going wrong,” he said after Sunday's race.

“I was sick, we were slow, we had spindles break, and that really helped us work out what we really could do better and what we needed to change.

“Across that three-month period after Bathurst last year we worked really hard and improved our package and from the second half of last year we were really competitive.

"I think that’s what set us up this weekend, to be honest.”

So, what about everyone else?

Team 18 recruit Anton De Pasquale hit the ground running with his new team, leaving Sydney 10 positions better off than his 2024 efforts with Dick Johnson Racing.

Walkinshaw Andretti United driver Ryan Wood, meanwhile, gained 10 positions after his zero-point, double DNF debut in Bathurst last February. Countryman Jaxon Evans, meanwhile, jumped up nine spots.

The biggest losers were Richie Stanaway, David Reynolds and Nick Percat, who dropped 21, 17 and 11 positions respectively. PremiAir Racing recruit Stanaway was heavily stung by a Saturday DNF, while Reynolds and Percat both suffered luckless weekends.

Waters' dominance also helped Tickford in the teams' championship, too. Last year, the Ford squad was seventh. Now, it's at the top of the pile.

Wood's double DNF had WAU ninth last year; now, the team is third, where it finished last season.

Triple Eight Race Engineering dropped one position, albeit from first to second, and is just 26 points behind Tickford.

By far and away the biggest loser was Matt Stone Racing, which fell from third to 12th. Percat is 17th, one position behind teammate Cameron Hill. Percat and Hill were sixth and 12th last season.

While it's the first round of the new Live Pit Lane season, the results won't have a major bearing on the next round at the Grand Prix, given there are no pit stops. The post-Grand Prix results will shape how the pit lane looks in New Zealand.

The 2025 Repco Supercars Championship will resume at the Melbourne SuperSprint, which will feature at the Formula 1 Louis Vuitton Australian Grand Prix 2025 on March 13-16.