Cameron Waters has explained his tag with the wall and mid-race spin during the opening leg of the Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500.
On Lap 51, the Tickford Racing driver slid the rear of the car into the tyres on the exit of the first chicane, entering a spin, and narrowly avoiding further contact with the concrete walls.
After dropping to 11th in the running order, Waters recovered to ultimately finish a credible fifth.
“There was a fair bit happening then,” he explained.
“We were racing for third, I think, and I lost the rear at the first one and then I couldn’t save it, hit the tyres, then it flicked me around and I just gassed it up, drove through the smoke, and come out through the other side.
“The car has been through a war that’s for sure.”
In a race without a single Safety Car period, it was notably the hairiest moment of the 85-lap encounter.
The #6 Monster Energy Ford Mustang driver revealed that he deliberately got on the throttle mid-spin to keep it off the inside wall.
“Yeah I was just afraid I was going to get fired into the other one, so I thought it would look a bit cooler if I gassed it up, got a bit of smoke just to make sure I made it into all the highlights reel for the next 10 years,” he added.
“Watching it now, it looks pretty cool, so that will make the highlights for sure.”
Waters demonstrated solid pace for the remainder of the race, diving down the inside of Anton De Pasquale at Turn 11 for fifth late in the race, where he would ultimately finish.
“It took me a few laps to work out what had just happened, but the car was pretty speedy, not as quick as Chaz [Mostert] and probably Dave [Reynolds] as well, but Shane [van Gisbergen] was a little bit quicker than us,” Waters elaborated.
“The car is doing some stuff really good, some stuff not so good, we’ll put our heads together tonight, and bring a stronger car to the track tomorrow.”
Supercars return to the streets of Surfers Paradise for Qualifying – Race 32 at 09:55 local time/10:55 AEDT.
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This very well could have been race-ending for Cam Waters! #RepcoSC pic.twitter.com/srthBGN33g
— Supercars (@supercars) October 29, 2022