Waters shutting out outside noise after red-hot start

Internal motivation, not outside noise, is motivating Cam Waters to back up his red-hot start to the season in Melbourne.

The Tickford Racing star will roll out at this weekend's Australian Grand Prix as the raging favourite following his stunning hat-trick of wins from pole position in Sydney.

Waters rewrote the record books with his Sydney performance, but heads to a circuit where he has just two podiums in 19 championship race starts. In 18 finishes, he has an average finish result of 9.8.

The 30-year-old looked set to end his AGP hoodoo 12 months ago after starting from pole, only to crash out disputing the lead with Ford rival Matt Payne.

Waters played down the question of if he's feeling added expectation to back up his Sydney speed, instead claiming he believes his Monster Ford is already a stronger prospect that it was heading to Melbourne last year.

In fact, Waters debuted a new chassis at last year's Grand Prix.

“We all expect to be competitive as a team,” Waters told The Driver's Seat podcast.

“Not really getting any extra pressure from anyone else at all, we’re just putting it on ourselves.

“Last year, we were competitive at the AGP, we just had bad luck, obviously had the crash with Matty Payne.

“I feel like our car is in a lot better position this year with set-up and stuff. I think we can go there and be really strong as well.”

Tickford also leads the teams' championship, with Waters and Thomas Randle to lead the field out in Melbourne.

While there are no pit stops at the Grand Prix, Waters is determined to keep Tickford at the top when the season continues in New Zealand.

Such is the pace of Waters, that reigning champion Will Brown implored his team, Triple Eight Race Engineering, to close the deficit to the Tickford star as quickly as possible.

“We’re going to have to make sure we leave AGP still leading that teams’ championship, so we can have some pit stops in the lead garage at New Zealand,” Waters said.

“It’s pretty special to be able to do that, but we’re not getting ahead of ourselves as a team, we’re working hard in the background to make sure we stay there."

Track action at Albert Park will commence on Thursday.