Waters reveals keys to snapping championship drought

Cleaner weekends and fewer mistakes are the cornerstone of Cam Waters finally breaking through for his first Supercars championship.

Waters, who will turn 32 in August, will commence his 11th season with Tickford Racing at the circuit he dominated in 2025, Sydney Motorsport Park.

A perfect three-from-three weekend offered hope of a title charge, before inconsistency reared its head at the very next round as Waters qualified outside the top 20 in Melbourne.

The record books will show Waters went winless after Sydney, but under the surface, the speed wasn’t there to threaten for wins anyway.

The closest the #6 Monster Energy Ford to getting back to victory lane was at The Bend, when Waters hounded Brodie Kostecki home.

In Waters' own words, it was an “up and down” season, and it showed. He missed the podium altogether at six rounds, including the last four — when it mattered most, with Waters knocked out of the Finals Series at Sandown.

“Obviously every team does reviews and go through the year, what they did good and bad and what they need to work on and improve,” Waters told Supercars.com.

“We've done that and I’ve had a good off-season to kind of freshen up and now we're into it.”

After a post season review, Tickford has worked over the summer to prepare for 2026. Notably, Waters is being reallocated chassis TR-28, with TR-30 — the car he raced across 2024 and 2025 — bought by Scott Taylor.

For what it's worth, Waters won the first race of the Gen3 era in TR-28, which was used as the wildcard car for Lochie Dalton, Rylan Gray and NASCAR star Austin Cindric last year.

All the while, Tickford is building its first in-house chassis, and will again run four Mustangs in Super2.

The big ticket items for Tickford remain Bathurst and championship glory, and despite moments of brilliance, the Ford squad fell short of both.

What matters to Waters, is that the base car speed is there — it’s a matter of staying out of trouble (see the Sandown clash with Matt Payne) and making fewer mistakes (see the loose wheel in Darwin).

What is clear, is that there is clear drive within the four walls at Tickford, with Waters and Thomas Randle both committing to the Ford squad through 2027, alongside new ownership.

There's also confidence looking to the new season, with Waters laying down the gauntlet to incoming Ford rival Triple Eight Race Engineering.

“The first year of The Finals was super cool to see how that played out. It was obviously cool to make the seven, I would've loved to be at Adelaide, which is what we want to achieve this year,” said Waters, who enjoyed a relaxed summer and is set to welcome his first child.

"It was kind of a weird one with how fast we were at Sydney. It was up and down after that, but I think there's a few tracks that we probably need to be a little bit stronger at which we need to identify.

“We need to have cleaner weekends and make fewer mistakes, which is one thing we need to fix. I think if we do that, we should be right. We're usually there or thereabouts on car pace."

The 2026 Repco Supercars Championship begins at the Sydney 500 from February 20-22. Tickets for the event are on sale now.