Instead, the Milduran left Mount Panorama 20th in the championship after finishes of 22nd and 16th.
There were mitigating factors in Race 1, with the late yellow flag in qualifying preventing Waters from improving on 20th to potentially a Row 2 starting berth, the #6 Monster Energy copping an early whack which affected rear-end aerodynamics, and then a broken spindle causing a wheel to break free – not to mention that team-mate Thomas Randle was barely more competitive, taking the chequered flag in 14th.
However, Randle finished fourth from seventh on the grid in Race 2, whereas the two-time Bathurst 1000 pole-sitter struggled again.
“[Saturday] was an off day for both cars and the team, but turned it around overnight,” Tickford Team Manager Matty Roberts told Speedcafe, post-Race 2.
“[Randle] put himself in the Top 10 [Shootout], he left a little bit of meat on the table, but we were happy with seventh considering where we came off the back of [Saturday].
Secure your spot today.
“He was solid in [Race 2], didn’t put a foot wrong, and delivered the top four result, and it was much-needed from a team point of view.
“Cam had his struggles all weekend.
“We did struggle in Practice 1 and we didn’t have the car right for him, and we worked hard all weekend on that car, we turned it upside down and inside out, and it didn’t seem to agree with whatever changes we were putting into it all weekend.
“So, we’ll go away, we’ll analyse everything out of this weekend and we’ll come out swinging at AGP.
“We’re looking forward to the Grand Prix, it’s been kind to us in years past; eyes forward, we’re not going to look backwards now.”
Randle’s set-up was installed in Car #6 for Race 2, which is said to have yielded gains before Waters – who himself battled nausea – faded as the 40-lapper went on.
Roberts is confident, though, that there is not a car issue.
“I don’t think so,” he said.
“The guys worked tirelessly over the break and every nut and bolt and washer has been thoroughly checked.
“The chassis is not that old, so we’re confident there.
“Hopefully it’s just a set-up thing and we’ll get him comfy for Grand Prix.”
As for the spindle failure for Car #6, it follows one for an Erebus Motorsport Camaro at last September’s post-Sandown 500 ride day, while other cars are said to have suffered cracks in that area.
“It was bad luck but hopefully the category can do something about that failure point,” said Roberts.
“I know JR [John Russell, Supercars Technical Manager] and Tim [Edwards, General Manager of Motorsport] and co. are working on a fix for that, so we’ll look forward to that fix and hopefully that’s for the Grand Prix onwards.”
Tickford at least left Mount Panorama armed with real-world data about its new package, after both the Mustang and Chevrolet Camaro were rehomologated following off-season wind tunnel testing.
It has been put to Speedcafe by another Ford figure that the Blue Oval teams faced a greater challenge than their Bowtie rivals because the Mustang’s shape has changed significantly whereas the Camaro behaves similarly even if it generates slightly more downforce than before.
“We’ll take a fair bit away from this weekend, and everything that we’ve received from the HT, Supercars, all the Windshear data, correlated well from what we could see,” remarked Roberts.
“So, well take that away and there’s a lot of data and analytics to go through between now and the Grand Prix.
“There’s a mountain of work there to be done, so everyone’s going to be busy.”
The Melbourne SuperSprint, run over four pure sprint races around Albert Park, takes place from March 21-24 at the Formula 1 Rolex Grand Prix.
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