Cam Waters feared his bad luck was never going to end before he won the opening race of the Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500.
It was his second victory of the 2023 Repco Supercars Championship but only the first since Race 1 of the season and, even then, that was a win inherited when both van Gisbergen and the other Triple Eight Race Engineering entry of Broc Feeney were disqualified.
Since then, in addition to driving a Ford Mustang which was subject to a second aerodynamic parity adjustment ahead of this weekend’s event – among a series of engine mapping and hardware changes – several other unfortunate occurrences have befallen Waters.
He was leading a race at Hidden Valley when his car literally caught fire, and a stray wheel from a rival entry knocked the rear wing off his Mustang in the Sandown 500, before co-driver James Moffat crashed out of the Bathurst 1000.
Frustration at his plight had also been evident in an explosive reaction over team radio to a controversial unsafe release penalty at Sydney Motorsport Park back in July.
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Upon arrival to the Gold Coast, Waters was only ninth in the championship, having finished second for two of the past three seasons, and now sits seventh with three races left in the campaign.
“It’s been a shocking year, to be honest, for many different reasons, and I didn’t think the bad luck was ever going to end,” he admitted after winning Race 25.
“When we rolled the car out, it was super-fast and we made it a little bit better, and just wanted to try and execute, and hopefully things went our way, and it finally did.
“I just felt like I was getting kicked over and over, and I didn’t know when it was going to end,” added Waters.
“I just kept getting up and staying motivated, keep training and keep trying to make the car better with the things that you can control.
“We’ve been fast over the last few rounds; I just haven’t been able to convert for all those reasons, so it was a massive relief, to be honest.”
The 29-year-old said he did not doubt himself, and also paid tribute to his Tickford crew.
“Not really; I just wanted to try and keep being the fastest Ford and I think I was managing to do that, besides obviously the DNFs and all that stuff that was going on,” he explained.
“So, I just tried to look at the positives through the bad times and keep pushing forward.
“The team have been amazing as well. They haven’t given up and it’s great to get the win for them.”
Qualifying for Race 26 starts tomorrow at 10:05 local time/11:05 AEDT.
