Polish native Rafal Lewandowski, whose background includes World Endurance Championship success with Toyota, joined the team in April.
A performance engineer with in-depth knowledge of simulation, Lewandowski was name-checked by Tickford CEO Simon Brookhouse in the wake of its Darwin triumph.
Cam Waters scored the Darwin Triple Crown award for most points gained across the weekend following finishes of first, second and third across the three races.
Those results were set up by vastly improved qualifying speed, which had been the team’s weakness across the early part of the campaign.
Waters began the weekend by topping the first and only practice session, setting up the results that followed.
“We set out at the start of the year to build to the Finals,” Brookhouse said when asked by Speedcafe how the team turned its fortunes.
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“We looked at a lot of what Walkinshaw did with Chaz [Mostert] last year and peaked at the right time and we have been doing a lot of work behind the scenes.
“We have been a little bit off in a couple of the rounds, but we just continued to work really hard back at the workshop.
“The feedback from the drivers is obviously really important.
“We’ve brought in Raf, a technical engineer as a new role, we think that has added some value around our analysis and our data.
“But all in all it has just been really hard work.”
Brookhouse made no mention of the fact Waters’ triumph came in just the second round with the team’s first in-house built Gen3 chassis.
While it’s unclear whether the new car contributed to the performance, Waters on several occasions through the weekend noted the effort put in by his crew to get it on track.
“This weekend it was great to roll the car out and it worked,” Waters said on Sunday.
“There were a few things it didn’t do great, but every round we’re doing, we’re learning.
“I think Townsville traditionally is a place that is strong for us with our set-up philosophy.
“We’ll marry that up with what we have learnt since then and hopefully we can go to Townsville and be just as strong.
“That’s what the key to it is going to be for us, being able to be fast at all different tracks.
“It’s something we haven’t probably done good enough but hopefully we have turned the page and we can do that.”
Waters won the Friday race from the second row of the grid before failing to convert pole into wins on Saturday and Sunday.
“This is great, it’s a lift for the team, but we still have got a lot more to do,” added Brookhouse.
“We were still a bit off, as well as Cam drove. I think it’s important to acknowledge that we’ve still got a bit of ground to make up.
“But we’re doing it gradually and slowly, and hopefully we come to Townsville and are on the top step in a couple of races.”
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