The series moved away from its traditional fuel towers at the beginning of last season for sprint events in a bid to cut costs and logistical headaches for teams.
The towers were replaced by NASCAR-style churns that gravity feed fuel into the cars at the non-enduro rounds.
A side effect of the churns is that filling becomes slower as the vessel sheds fuel, encouraging teams to short-fill to save time in the pit lane and then ask drivers to fuel save to make the end of a stint or race.
Adding to the incentive is that the fuel drop rules, which mandated how much fuel a car had to take on during a race, were dumped when the churns were introduced.
The matter was particularly prominent across the 200-kilometre races in Townsville with references to fuel numbers often heard via team radio.
For Waters, fuel saving proved costly in the Sunday race with a very short fill on his second stop leaving him in high conservation mode for the run to the flag.
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He felt that cost him a shot of running down Matt Payne for second place and left him frustrated with the entire concept of saving fuel.
“We just didn’t get enough fuel in the car, so I had heaps of fuel saving in the last stint,” said Waters.
“I don’t think I would have got to [race winner] Brodie [Kostecki]. His middle stint was amazing, that really set up his race.
“But I reckon I could have got to the back of Matt, which would have been a cool battle.
“But yeah, I obviously didn’t have enough fuel in the car and had to fuel save and that’s the way it’s been with these fuel churns.
“It’s all about saving fuel and it’s a pretty shit way to go racing.”
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