Supercars: In-form Waters finds ‘happy spot’ before Symmons showdown

Cam Waters is riding a purple patch of form after declaring his team has found its ‘happy spot’ before next month’s Tasmania SuperSprint. He also dished out some praise to a rising Tassie gun when visiting Launceston on Tuesday.

V8 Supercars drivers Cam Waters and Richie Stanaway at Launceston's National Automobile Museum of Tasmania on Tuesday. Picture: Mark Horsburgh/V8 Supercars

In-form V8 Supercars driver Cam Waters has declared Tickford Racing have found their “happy spot” after following a rocky start to the season with a purple patch of podiums.

Speaking in Launceston on Tuesday, the 29-year-old is confident of continuing the momentum at next month’s Tasmania SuperSprint after a win, three podiums and two poles in his last four races.

Waters was 15th after three rounds, which featured two collisions, but has rocked to fourth on the standings.

“This year’s definitely been a roller coaster for us. Tickford downscaling to two cars, a few personnel changes,” Waters said.

“We finished last year pretty strong, but a couple of little things influenced the rocky start to the year.

“We learned so much about the car the first three rounds and we think we’ve got a happy spot for it now.

“I like to think we can keep that momentum going now. We need to find a little more car speed but we’ve won a couple of races and got podiums which has been great.”

V8 Supercars drivers Richie Stanaway and Cam Waters at Launceston on Tuesday. Mark Horsburgh/V8 Supercars

Waters said the team is relishing the task of nailing a Symmons Plains round which poses a different challenge to last year.

The races are longer, and the round has been moved to the depths of winter.

“We’ve got two long straights into the tightest hairpin on our calendar, that’s always pretty entertaining when we’re going in there side-by-side,” he said.

“It’s going to be a lot different. We’ve come off the northern swing and we get out of the car super hot.

“Going down here there’s definitely going to be challenges from an engineering aspect. Like trying to get the tyres up for qualie for one lap, which is very different to racing in say Darwin or Townsville.

“It’s just another challenge that gets thrown at us you have to deal with, which is part of the fun. Whoever deals with that best will win, we’re already thinking about the weather and what we need to do differently.”

Waters backed stablemate Lochie Dalton to blossom in Super Two after the Tasmanian made his V8 Supercars debut at this month’s Sydney Supernight.

The 21-year-old will return to the support classes at Symmons Plains, with the Tasmania SuperSprint set for August 16-18.

“Lochie did a really good job, it’s a massive step up from super Two into the main series,” Waters said.

“He probably picked one of the harder tracks to go to as well, and with a new car. He kept his nose clean and learned a lot.

“I just tried` to give him as much advice as I could. He had a really good team to lean on, he asked lots of questions and got better every session.

“In Super Two you’ve probably got two guys, maybe three who are operating in a really good level, in Supercars there’s 25.

“The level of competition is a lot higher, just adapting to that is the biggest challenge.”

Championship leader Will Brown won two races at Symmons Plains last year while Broc Feeney, his new teammate at Triple Eight, won the other.

Grove Racing’s Richie Stanaway was also in Launceston to promote the Tasmania SuperSprint on Tuesday.