Waters: I'm sick of saying we'll try again next year
Tickford tyre mix-up costs Cam Waters in Adelaide
Waters second in first stint behind teammate Thomas Randle
Broc Feeney, Will Brown lead Triple Eight one-two
"I'm sick of saying we'll try again next year."
That was the blunt assessment by Cam Waters when asked in Adelaide if he can finally break through to win the Repco Supercars Championship in 2025.
The Tickford Racing driver started from pole and finished third in Saturday's Race 23, with Triple Eight Race Engineering driver Broc Feeney winning ahead of teammate and champion-elect Will Brown.
Waters was a revelation in the second half of the season, winning four races and taking seven poles following a disastrous starts to the season.
An awful Bathurst 500, crash disputing the lead with Matt Payne in Melbourne and poor luck in New Zealand saw Waters leave Round 3 in Taupō a staggering 388 points behind leader Brown.
He bounced back and was arguably best behind Brown in the rounds since, but the bad start was too large a hill to climb.
“I'm sick of saying we’ll try again next year, to be honest," said the 30-year-old, who finished runner-up in 2020 and 2022.
“We finished last year pretty strong, and I think all the changes with the aero and all those things kind of hurt us at the start of the year.
“We had to find out feet and our set-ups and the window the car needed to be in. Once we kind of did that we were okay.
“We could get poles and go for race wins and podiums. Just spewin’ about the first three rounds, but it is what it is.”
Waters labelled Saturday’s Adelaide race as "one that got away" after he crawled home with the wrong right-front tyre on his Monster Ford.
Waters overhauled teammate Thomas Randle, who led the first stint, in the second stint. A short-fuelled Feeney jumped the Tickford drivers and cruised home, while Waters dropped to third behind Brown and denied Payne in the closing laps.
"It was probably one that got away but still happy with the day,” said Waters, who is now just 56 points behind Ford rival Chaz Mostert for third in the championship.
"In practice we really struggled and turned the car around today. To get pole was awesome.
"We had a fast race car, the end of the stints was really good for us, and we lost it in that pitstop putting the old tyre on the right-front.
"It was a left-rear from my first stint and I beat up on it pretty hard, so she wasn’t ready to go back on the car, that’s for sure.
"It was hard work. I struggled to brake, struggled to turn. I knew Will was going to get me for sure and just wanted to try and stay on the podium and just got there."
