Cameron Waters is not conceding his Repco Supercars Championship title hopes are over but is more focussed on race wins for the remainder of the 2022 season.
The Tickford Racing driver is Shane van Gisbergen’s nearest challenger in the standings but sits a full 500 points back from #97.
Waters stated at The Bend that every event is a must-win scenario if he wants to keep his title hopes afloat, though van Gisbergen has only extended the margin since.
“We’re running out of events to catch Shane, but it’s not really in my thoughts at the moment,” Waters told Speedcafe.com.
“We’re second and it’s a massive margin to Shane, but there’s still lots of racing to happen.
“For me, my focus is winning races.
Secure your spot today.
“I’m not happy with second, we should have been a lot closer to Shane but we had a bit of bad luck.
“We didn’t have the best start to the year and there are still points where we’re needing a bit more pace.
“Second is the next-best spot behind leading; the year is not over but we’re not really thinking championship.
“Bathurst is coming up, that’s a pretty big race, anybody could win that.”
Supercars heads to Pukekohe Park Raceway this weekend, with the event being run on the hard compound tyre.
The hard tyre will also be used at Mount Panorama, with the Repco Bathurst 1000 being the next stop after New Zealand on the calendar.
Waters admitted Tickford is already thinking about the 161-lap enduro, with hopes that some gains at Pukekohe can be translated at Bathurst.
“Because you’re on the hard tyre at Pukekohe and then you go to Bathurst you can learn a bit of that stuff,” he added.
“The track is a fair bit different to Bathurst, so yeah you can learn some things, but you’re probably going to take a different car anyway to Bathurst.
“The main thing is just driving on the hard tyre, but the track grip from Pukekohe to Bathurst is a lot different.
“You can always learn stuff, but how much we’ll work it out.”
While this weekend’s event will be Supercars’ last at Pukekohe, with the circuit set to close, it also marks the championship’s return after a two-year hiatus.
Waters believes there will be an added focus on the practice sessions, given a lot has changed on the cars since the category’s last visit in 2019.
“I think we’ll just treat it like any other race meeting we go to,” he said.
“You take the best car that you think is going to work there and you get tuning and make the most of it.
“It’s been a little bit since we’ve been there, the cars are set up a fair bit different to back then, so there will be a bit to learn in practice.
“I don’t think it will be too crazily different to what we’ve been running so far this year.”
Waters typically fields the #6 but will switch to the #50 this weekend to recognise a milestone of sponsor Enzed.
The opening practice session at Pukekohe kicks off on Friday at 14:40 local time/12:40 AEST.
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