Cameron Waters has given a colourful summary of his struggles against the Chevrolet Camaro drivers after missing the podium in Race 10 of the Supercars Championship at Symmons Plains.
The Tickford Racing driver inherited second place as a result of a particularly messy pair of incidents on Lap 3 at Brambles Hairpin, and at one point pegged eventual race winner Will Brown’s lead back to just one second.
He emerged third from the pit stop cycle after being jumped by Brad Jones Racing’s Andre Heimgartner in the lane, before being reeled in by Shane van Gisbergen.
On the 42nd and final lap, van Gisbergen went for a criss-cross at Brambles Hairpin and got the run on the #6 Ford Mustang up the back straight, before making an easy pass at the Turn 6 left-hander.
Camaros thus swept the podium, with Waters the only Mustang driver to finish in the top eight, having also been the only one to qualify in the top 10 earlier in the day.
He did at least score the five bonus points for the fastest lap of the contest.
“Every lap was a qualifier… I feel like I’m in a gunfight with a knife at the moment,” said Waters post-race.
“The only Ford in the top 10… Really wanted to get the first Ford win of the year.”
Waters is in fact Ford’s first and so far only race winner of the 2023 Repco Supercars Championship.
However, that victory occurred in Race 1 of the season at Newcastle, and only after the Triple Eight Race Engineering entries which were first and second to the chequered flag were disqualified over an illegally mounted driver cooling system.
Camaros have dominated ever since, leading to a series of changes intended to achieve parity between the two cars, although the Ford camp’s clear gripe remains an apparent acceleration deficit.
Camaro drivers now also fill out the top three in the drivers’ championship, with Erebus Motorsport’s Brodie Kostecki and Brown split by Triple Eight’s van Gisbergen.
Chaz Mostert dropped from second to fourth given he was a DNF in the aforementioned Lap 3 incident which also caused Kostecki to drop several laps due to steering arm damage.
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