How horror 2024 start is driving Waters' 2025 title bid
OPINION: Cam Waters finished 2024 as arguably the standout performer in Supercars, suggesting he could finally be armed with his best chance yet at a maiden championship.
"I'm sick of saying we'll try again next year."
If there was ever a single quote from last season that could define the new one, it's the above by Cam Waters.
Uttered by Waters after watching Will Brown celebrate clinching the 2024 championship in Adelaide, the comment all but proves the Tickford Racing driver has no plans on missing out again.
Waters finished fourth last season, a result only bettered by his runner-up finishes in 2020 and 2022. On all three occasions, obviously, the title proved elusive.
The Tickford star's start to 2024 was what cost him a shot at the championship, but his end to the season was the performance of a driver that does have what it takes to become a champion.
Waters was, quote, "spewin'" over his results in the first three rounds of 2024, which saw a wheel come off at the Bathurst 500, a crash disputing the lead with Matt Payne in Melbourne, and a startline collision from pole with Tim Slade in Taupō.
All told, Waters left Round 3 of 12 a staggering 388 points behind leader and eventual champion Brown.
From there, Waters won four races and was only outscored by Brown in the final nine rounds. Between Rounds 4 and 12, Brown scored just 21 more points than Waters, who was 30 points ahead of Broc Feeney, and 76 points ahead of Chaz Mostert.
Crucially, the introduction of the Finals could play into Waters' hands, given he has won races in the final two rounds of the season in 2020, 2023 and 2024.
“I'm sick of saying we’ll try again next year, to be honest," Waters said after Race 23.
“We finished last year pretty strong, and I think all the changes with the aero and all those things kind of hurt us at the start of the year.
“We had to find out feet and our set-ups and the window the car needed to be in. Once we kind of did that we were okay. We could get poles and go for race wins and podiums.
"Just spewin’ about the first three rounds, but it is what it is.”
Why Tickford can be optimistic for 2025
Waters has been Tickford's spearhead for at least five seasons now, but between 2020 and 2023, he didn't have a teammate to go with him as the Ford squad balanced four cars.
Tickford's decision to downscale to two cars paid immediate dividends, with the team reaching its best teams' championship result in nine seasons, with Waters and Thomas Randle finishing fourth and fifth in the drivers' championship.
Waters and Randle combined for for four wins, eight poles and 11 podiums, helping Tickford to its best teams' championship result since 2015, the year it won the drivers' title with Mark Winterbottom.
There are high hopes for 2025, given the team managed to get both drivers in the top five. Only eight teams have achieved the feat, and only four have done so in the last 15 seasons: Tickford, Triple Eight Race Engineering, DJR Team Penske and Erebus Motorsport.
Triple Eight has been far and away the benchmark, achieving the feat in each season between 2007 and 2021, before doing it again in 2023 and 2024. Tickford hadn't done it with two primary cars since Mark Winterbottom and Will Davison in 2013.
Should Randle go to another level in 2025, and should he push Waters along, Tickford could finally snap its championship wait, and conceivably do the drivers'-teams' double.
"We've got a big year together; I've known Cam for 20 years," Randle said during the Bathurst 12 Hour broadcast.
"He'll probably tell you that it's 20 years too long, I probably annoy him a bit. We have fun, and I'm excited for for 2025."
