Cam Waters finished 10th and 15th in Darwin
Waters qualified eighth and 19th for the races
Tickford star now sixth in the championship
Cam Waters has lamented one-lap woes that prevented the Tickford Racing driver making an impression in the Darwin races.
Waters finished 10th and 15th in the two betr Darwin Triple Crown races, with Triple Eight rival Broc Feeney taking out both 48-lappers.
Four weeks after taking pole in Perth, Waters was ninth in Friday Qualifying and eighth in the Shootout. He finished sixth on the road, but was demoted to 10th after being penalised over a clash with Anton De Pasquale.
Come Sunday, and Waters was only 19th in Qualifying, one position ahead of Chaz Mostert, who also struggled with one-lap pace. He could only improve to 15th in the race, and was some 39 second behind winner Feeney.
“This category is all about qualifying, and we were terrible in qualifying,” Waters said on the broadcast.
“So, we did a couple of changes overnight and tried to close that little bit of gap that we had yesterday and, car was horrible over one lap of qualifying.
"We tried some stuff in the race and was definitely better, but as soon as you get to the back of someone, the front tyre just heats up and you just lose grip and you're just a sitting duck, unfortunately.
"So, frustrating day. We moved forward a little bit, but just not where we want to be.”
Waters arrived in Darwin off the back of an impressive NASCAR Cup Series debut, which after a charge through the field, was cut short after a mid-race pile-up.
While proud to get the Cup Series feather in his cap, Waters’ immediate attention was on his Darwin weekend, in which he felt "we were never really in the mix."
"Sonoma and that Cup race was a bucket list thing, I had so much fun,” he said.
“But, you remember your last couple of races and we were here in Darwin and we had a poor weekend.
"So, yeah, definitely I'll remember Sonoma and all that and then hopefully we can do some more races going forward.
“But this is my day job. I want to be winning races, getting poles. This weekend we were never really in the mix.”
Waters dropped from fourth to sixth in the standings, and is now 515 points behind championship leader Will Brown.