The staggering gains keeping Waters within reach of unlikely lead

It's unlike Cam Waters to be off the mark in qualifying. That's been the case so far in 2026.

However, a brilliant turn of form in races has not only kept the Tickford Racing star out of trouble, but also within reach of the championship lead.

While the likes of Brodie Kostecki and Broc Feeney have enjoyed the biggest spoils so far this season, Waters has been a revelation in races, marching forward with smarts and ease.

Through seven races, Waters is the only driver left to have gained positions in every single race. All told, Waters has moved forward 14 positions on the first lap alone, and has gained a whopping 39 positions from where he has started.

The efforts have been rewarded on the scoreboard, with Waters heading to New Zealand just 28 points behind championship leader Kostecki.

“We came into this weekend having a bad round here last year,” Waters said on the broadcast after Sunday's Melbourne finale.

“We needed to learn a bit — if we needed to have fast cars, we didn't qualify as well as we would've liked, but we did a really good job of converting in the races, moving forward, keeping clean as much as we could.

“Obviously great to come out of the weekend leading the teams and second in the championship for me is pretty cool as well, without having the fastest car."

Cam Waters: 2026 race gains

Per Supercars data analyst Scott Sinclair, results are 37% less predictable race-to-race than last year, meaning a good result in one race is no guarantee of the same in the next.

Sinclair adds: "That unpredictability has increased the tension on track, which naturally filters through to the engineers in the pits. Dealing with fired-up drivers is a unique part of the race engineer role for which you get zero training... the art is having the foresight to address a small issue before it becomes a bigger one."

Sinclair hailed the impact of Waters' engineer Sam Potter, who managed to get his driver to do a second flying lap in Saturday qualifying while 11 other drivers missed out.

Potter was well aware of what was required, getting Waters to hustle on his out-lap, pass eight cars, and cross the line to start his flying lap with one second to spare. Waters qualified eighth, but rewarded Potter with a run to third.

Waters then used all of his smarts to survive the Turn 1 chaos that wiped out three cars on Sunday.

“Apparently I've forgotten how to qualify, but I know how to race,” Waters joked.

“We'll regroup. I think we learned some stuff this weekend with qualifying, which is great. We'll debrief like we usually would and work out what we did well and bad and work on our qualifying.

"I think if we can qualify up the front, it'll be a lot easier to get podiums and race wins. I think the car speed in race trim is actually not too bad."

Waters will resume his 2026 campaign at the ITM NZ Doubleheader, starting with Taupō on April 10-12. Tickets are on sale now.

2026 Supercars drivers: Qualifying and race averages

After Round 2, Melbourne SuperSprint