The one word response that sums up Waters' Sydney shock
Cam Waters raced from 20th to third in brilliant performance
Tickford Racing star charged from 20th to 13th on the opening lap in Race 3
Waters heads to Melbourne third in the championship
“No.”
That was the simple answer given by Cam Waters when asked if he thought he could score a podium from 20th.
Thankfully for Tickford Racing — which somehow leads the teams’ championship — that’s exactly what Waters did, despite battling illness.
A qualifying disaster left Waters buried down in 20th for the Sydney finale, but the Monster Energy Ford was 13th by the end of the first lap.
Through rain, heat and chaos, Waters emerged with third position. It was the lowest he had ever started a Supercars race to claim a podium, beating his 19th in Ipswich last season.
Just hours after scratching his head over a qualifying flop, Waters ended up sitting third in the championship with finishes of fifth, fourth and third.
“No. No. I did not think that,” a raspy Waters said when asked in the press conference.
“I just had an amazing start. All first three laps was amazing. Just ended up in all the right spots and everyone was in all the wrong spots, and just kept picking 'em off.
"Eight spots after three laps, which was awesome. Just from that point, tried to look after the tyres a little bit. still picked a few more off. That was great. Really set up our race.
“Then I was pretty excited when it started raining as well. It was a cool race and great for the team.”
Waters was the man of the moment 12 months ago, winning all three Sydney races from pole position. The Tickford star wanted a repeat, but was happy to leave Sydney with a better understanding of his Mustang.
"Obviously we qualified terrible. We really thought about what we did good and bad across the weekend and what went wrong in qualifying,” Waters said.
“We had a fairly fast car in that race. Probably not quick enough to win it, but it was a massive turnaround.
“It’s still great way to start the year. Obviously I would've preferred a repeat of last year again, but saying that I think we've learned a hell of a lot this weekend, which is great.
"We can use all that in the next few rounds where last year, we probably thought we were better than what we actually were.
"I think we understand our car a lot more now, which is great."
