Cam Waters revealed in the aftermath of the Friday triumph that he had radio problems from the moment he rolled out to the grid.
“I think it was the TV people messing with my radio,” he said.
Waters noted it improved from there, crucially allowing him to hear a race-defining lap 18 call to make his compulsory pit stop.
However, it was just the latest of many radio issues experienced by teams in the pit lane this year following the adoption of a control system.
The move to have the whole pit lane to utilise Riedel Communications came as part of Supercars’ switch to a new TV production partner, NEP.
It was made to more seamlessly integrate team radio communications into the broadcast, but has proven troublesome for those in pit lane.
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“The radios are not audible. It’s rubbish. It’s been rubbish for a while,” Tickford team manager Matt Roberts told Speedcafe.
“The guys been working on it for many rounds now. We’ve changed nearly everything we can in the cars.
“We’ve changed radio helmet kits, we’ve changed programs, you name it, we’ve thrown it at it.
“And then on the outlap, there was nothing, zero. Cam couldn’t hear us. We couldn’t hear him. It was not audible.
“We could hear the broadcast trying to communicate. I’m not sure if broadcast could hear him or not…”
Inside the risky split-second call behind Waters’ Townsville win
Roberts is hopeful that further work can fix the problem ahead of today’s track action.
“Something’s got to be done about it. It’s not good enough. It’s got to be fixed,” he said.
“We cannot race properly like that. If there was a Safety Car, he’s going past pit entry, race is done.
“We just said to him, ‘look, if you see Safety Car boards and flags and you can’t hear us, you’re in. We’ll be here waiting for you’.”
“We had a perfectly working system last year, and I just want to get back to that.
“I’m happy to work with whoever it is that can give us a working radio system. It’s as simple as that.”
The NTI Townsville 500 continues with qualifying from 11:25am.
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