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Tickford Racing leader Cameron Waters is plotting a high-risk, high-reward strategy to salvage a result from the third and final Supercars race at the Merlin Darwin Triple Crown.
Waters will start the 15:55 (AEST) race this afternoon from 12th on the grid after his worst qualifying result of the season.
It’s been an unusually tough event in terms of one-lap pace for Waters, who has six front-row starts this year but failed to qualify better than seventh for any of the three Hidden Valley races.
The Monster Energy-backed driver did take second from Race 12 yesterday, capitalising on the first corner carnage that unfolded.
The task this afternoon appears difficult, especially given the new super soft tyres have had nowhere near the level of degradation expected.
“Look, I think we’re going to have to roll the dice and try something,” Waters said on the broadcast.
“It would be nice to have a little bit more pace in the car. I think if you’ve got that, then you really can try something a bit different instead of doing something vanilla.
“We’ll see what it’s like in those first few laps and we’ll probably make a decision after that.”
Tickford also had work to do on its wildcard entry for Thomas Randle following brake issues during Race 13 earlier today.
Randle, who on Friday was announced for a full-time 2022 seat at Tickford, ran extremely deep at Turn 1 before spending time in the garage.
“Up until that point, I noticed a lot of vibration in the right-front,” said the Castrol Racing driver.
“I was just doing my normal safety taps, went for the move and the pedal went all the way, I didn’t even lock a front.
“I tried to do a couple more laps after that but something just didn’t feel quite right.
“We went back out on the last lap and still felt like it was there, so the boys are going to try to find out what it is and we’ll be on the grid and ready to roll for the last race.”
Randle will line up on the eighth row of the grid for Race 14.
