Cameron Waters believes every event is now a must-win scenario if he wants to keep his Repco Supercars Championship title hopes afloat.
Waters has been one of the most consistent drivers in the field this season with three race victories to his name and a string of 13 consecutive top 10 finishes.
But now, only race wins are good enough to keep within reach of the drivers’ championship.
Supercars returns to The Bend Motorsport Park this weekend, a happy hunting ground for Mustang drivers.
It’s a track the 27-year-old has racked up wins at in the last two years, and doesn’t expect much different this time around.
Waters hopes he can boost his championship hopes at The Bend, entering the weekend third in the drivers’ standings with a 330-point deficit to Shane van Gisbergen.
In a further plus, he can lean on what was learnt when Tickford Racing team-mate Thomas Randle used a rookie test day at the circuit recently.
“Race wins for sure is the goal, it needs to be every weekend from now on if we want to go for the championship,” Waters told Speedcafe.com.
“We had a good test day with [team-mate] Thomas [Randle] there, I think that was now a month ago.
“So yeah, there’s a bit of confidence; we won races there last year, well, the last few years so [I’m] excited to go back to Tailem Bend and go for some wins.”
Waters is one of four drivers to have finished all 900 laps that have made up the 20 races to date, which he believes correlates to a major Tickford Racing turning point.
The Mildura native says that can be traced to the fact his crew has reached the point where they have ‘ironed out the deficiencies’.
“It’s good to finish every lap this year, so far, it’s a pretty good stat,” he enthused.
“It’s something that we wanted to do at the start of the year, is being consistent and finishing races.
“So far, so good; touch wood.
“I guess the pace track-to-track has improved as well.
“We’ve kind of ironed out our deficiencies a bit, which is really good. And I think we’re getting stronger as well.”
In the past, Tickford Racing has had a lengthy list of tracks that its package does not favour.
However, Waters believes the team is finally on top of the car.
“I think we’ve got a better handle on the car and making it work at different tracks,” he added.
“So that’s been a real positive. It’s something that we’ve lacked in the past and I think we’ve definitely improved this year, which is good, but still need to find a little bit more.
“I’ve been able to rock up better [at] any track and knowing that you can be on the podium or fight for wins just has been really good this year.”
The OTR SuperSprint kicks off on Friday with support category action before Supercars is on track on Saturday for opening practice at 09:45 local time/10:15 AEST.
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