Waters wants tyre turnaround after win slips away

Cam Waters is chasing tyre life improvement after victory slipped away on Saturday afternoon at the Bosch Power Tools Perth Super 440.

The Tickford Racing driver swept into an early lead inn Race 15, with Waters sweeping around the outside of pole man Ryan Wood before they reached Turn 1.

Waters staved off Penrite Racing Matt Payne in the opening laps, before Wood charged through to clear Payne and Waters by lap 19.

Wood’s suspension failure on lap 21 released Waters back into the lead, but Triple Eight pulled the wool over Tickford’s eyes by successfully undercutting its drivers into the lead.

Tickford was caught flat-footed, and Waters rejoined in fourth behind eventual winner Broc Feeney, Will Brown and Chaz Mostert, who fought through from 11th.

Waters set the fastest lap on lap 31, which earned the Monster Ford driver the five bonus points. However, Waters finished 7.6s from victory, and crossed the line just 0.2s ahead of Payne.

Waters’ call to improve tyre life is backed up by raw numbers — in his 23-lap run home, Waters’ average lap time was 55.6180s. Feeney’s average lap time after his stop, meanwhile, was 0.2s faster (55.4008s).

Crucially, Waters is now 117 points behind Feeney heading into Sunday’s 200km race, which will award 140 points to the winner. Waters finished 12th in the last two 200km races in New Zealand and Tasmania, with 12th offering just 56 points.

“It was an okay day,” Waters said.

“Qualified seventh, run seventh, qualified second, run fourth with the quickest lap. Just didn't really have the tyre life today, and just not quite comfortable in the car.

“So, we’ll put our heads together overnight, make them a little bit faster for tomorrow, and go get a w."

Supercars action resumes in Perth on Sunday with Boost Mobile Qualifying at 11:00am local/1:00pm AEST, which sets the running order for the Boost Mobile Top Ten Shootout at 1:05pm local/3:05pm AEST. The weekend concludes with Race 16 at 3:15pm local/5:15pm AEST.