The Ford driver is fourth in the championship entering the Surfers Paradise event, the last driver in mathematical contention a full 464 points adrift of leader Will Brown.

Brown is 204 clear of Triple Eight teammate Broc Feeney and 225 ahead of third-placed Chaz Mostert, meaning he can secure the title as soon as this weekend.

Triple Eight has already locked away the teams’ championship while Chevrolet cannot be topped for wins by arch rival Ford.

Waters, however, leads the race for the season’s Pole Champion Award – the prize for which has been upped from $10,000 to $25,000 this year by sponsor Boost Mobile.

Asked of his championship outlook following practice on Friday, Waters said: “The guys up the front are a fair way infront of me and I’ve got a bit of a gap behind me.

“For me, I just want to be winning races, attacking…

“I want to get poles, try and lock the qualifying thing away and get that Boost cheque at the end of the year and just be a nuisance really to Will Brown.

“I’m focused on being fast, learning, getting poles and winning races. If we do that we’ll see what happens with the others, but just concentrate on myself.”

Waters has five pole positions for the season, one more than Feeney.

Mostert, Brown and Matt Payne are all locked on two, while James Golding, Jack Le Brocq, Will Davison, Thomas Randle and Brodie Kostecki have one each.

Four pole positions are available across the Gold Coast 500 and next month’s season-ending Adelaide 500. A countback of second placings is used in the case of a tie.

Boost upped the season’s pole money to over $100,000 in 2024, stacking the tail end of the campaign with big prizes.

Following Kostecki’s $15,000 bonaza at Bathurst, each pole on the Gold Coast is worth $6,500 while Adelaide’s poles net $5,000 apiece.

Waters won the Pole Champion Award in 2022. It was taken out last year by Kostecki, who secured it on the Gold Coast before being crowned champion in Adelaide.