The championship leader, with 315 points in his bag, said he’ll reserve judgement on his team’s performance until venturing to other circuits.

The Tickford Racing driver was dominant at Sydney Motorsport Park in all conditions, and Walkinshaw Andretti United’s Chaz Mostert reckons Waters won’t fade.

“I think we got some good things there, I think we just didn’t package it all right together this weekend. In saying that, don’t take anything away from what Cam and Tickford did this weekend,” said Mostert.

“That was, for me personally, probably some of the best driving I’ve ever seen Cam do. When you’re watching those qualifying laps and absolutely getting the most out of that car was really impressive.

“It’s safe to say, he’s probably the man to watch this year. We’ve got a little bit of work to do in our squad, but we’re keen for the challenge and we’ll see how we go at the next one.”

Waters has never started a season so strong, and the last time any driver swept the first three races of the season was Shane van Gisbergen in 2021 for Triple Eight Race Engineering.

The last Ford driver to achieve that feat was Scott McLaughlin for DJR Team Penske. In both instances, van Gisbergen and McLaughlin went on to win the championship in those years.

“It’s obviously a very special weekend to be able to clean sweep a whole weekend. Usually you win a race and the conditions change and someone’s car will work a little bit better,” said Waters.

“The fact our car was working in all different conditions was awesome and shows how good my team is around me to be able to give me a race car that can do that. The real test will be taking it to different race tracks and see if we’re as competitive as we are now.”

Before the Sydney 500 weekend, Speedcafe readers voted Waters the favourite to win the title with just below 40 percent of the more than 1500 votes. Mostert was second (15 percent) and Brodie Kostecki third (13 percent).

So does Waters consider himself the favourite? The Monster Energy-backed driver remains coy.

“The last few years I feel have been all good chances. This is definitely the best we’ve started the year, for sure,” he said.

“I’ve got really good people around me and everyone is working really well together, so definitely have a good shot at winning this year for sure.

“But this is only one track, there are a fair few others to come. We’ve got to make sure we’re fast at all of them and I’m sure the guys next to me will rock up at the next round and be a little bit faster and it’ll be game on.”