Tickford 2025 season review: False dawn after incredible start
As 2025 winds down, Supercars.com is looking over all 11 teams and their performances in this year's Repco Supercars Championship, continuing with Tickford Racing.
Rewind back to February's Sydney 500, and it looked as though this was the finally going to be the year that Cam Waters and Tickford would get all of their ducks in a row and give a championship tilt a real nudge.
He was simply in a different league to start the year. Three wins, three poles, three fastest laps, 315 points won out of 315. His margin of victory in the opening 100km sprint of the year? 16.8748 seconds.
Yet, that was as good as it got in 2025, for Tickford wouldn't win another race in the season. Waters would rack up five runner-up finishes in Taupō, Darwin, Townsville, Ipswich, and The Bend, but never looked like rediscovering his Sydney form.
Perhaps most disappointing of all was Sandown, where both Waters and Tickford needed to come out swinging to keep their season alive.
Yet they didn't fire a shot, with his drive on Sunday one of anger, frustration, and above all else desperation. It didn't come off, and ended Matt Payne's title run in the process, but you couldn't question Waters' efforts.
Sandown was even tougher for teammate Thomas Randle, who had quietly worked his way into the Semi Finals. He was effectively rubbed out of contention after qualifying 22nd for the opening race of the weekend.
After a 2024 season filled with promise after downsizing, there's no question that slipping from second last year to fourth in 2025, and to miss a Grand Final berth will be bitterly disappointing for the former Ford factory team.
Tickford Racing: 2025 season results and head-to-heads
Drivers' finish: Cam Waters 6th, Thomas Randle 7th
Teams' finish: 4th
Best result: 1st (Cam Waters, Sydney 3x)
Qualifying head-to-head: Cam Waters 26, Thomas Randle 8
Race head-to-head: Cam Waters 24, Thomas Randle 8
What's next in 2026?
Tickford will carry stability into the new year, as will the remainder of the top five teams in pit lane.
There's no doubting that when he has the right tools for the job, Waters is absolutely one of the best operators in the field, and now entering what will be his 11th season as a full-timer is also one of the most experienced.
However, Tickford have to give him that platform on a consistent basis, and especially in a Supercars world where you can't afford to have off weekends, as evidenced by his Semi Final elimination.
Though unconfirmed, it's expected that Mark Winterbottom will join Waters again in the enduros, which proved a formidable combination with a runner-up finish at The Bend, though a strategic misstep at Bathurst proved costly in slippery conditions.
Whilst that lingering question of championship wins and Bathurst wins continues to linger over Waters, Randle is yet to shake the monkey of a maiden race win off his back.
After he ended last year in a hot run of form, many expected him to break his duck this season, however it never eventuated, his best being a runner-up finish in Tasmania after starting from pole position.
There will be a change in the co-driver ranks, with James Moffat departing after an eight-year stint, and a replacement yet to be announced. Super2 prospect Reuben Goodall has been touted as an option.
The views in this article do not necessarily express the opinions of Supercars, teams or drivers.
