FORD star Cam Waters has expressed gratitude towards Supercars’ efforts to facilitate a fairer fight for the Mustang’s battle against the red-hot Camaro.
The Blue Oval’s 11-pronged fleet has been granted an upgraded rear-end aero package in time for this weekend’s NTI Townsville 500, after 14 successive wins for Chevrolet drivers.
Waters has been the most outspoken parity critic among drivers this year and took part in some on-track testing last week at Winton.
“I guess I have been vocal on us, Ford, struggling as well as a lot of other drivers and teams,” the Tickford Racing spearhead told V8 Sleuth.
“Supercars have been great to look into the data and suss it out… it’s good that they’ve found something and acted on it.
“Hopefully it fixes some of our dramas we have been struggling with and we have got a fair fight now.”
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It’s hoped the changes will aid various facets of performance including tyre life, the Gen3 Mustangs having generally laboured across race distances.
“All the changes are based around the rear and making the car brake better and get to the corner better; I guess that’s what all Fords have been struggling with,” Waters added.
“I guess it’s good to have some facts back up our comments.
“We’ll just treat it like another weekend and hopefully we’re closer in race pace to the other make.”
Reflecting on the Darwin fire
Waters also opened up on his #6 Monster Energy entry catching fire while leading Race 1 of the Darwin Triple Crown last month.
“It was the first fire that I have been in,” said the 28-year-old.
“Fires aren’t fun obviously but it was fine, it all happened very quickly. Probably the one thing that was a bit different was there was fire in the cabin, so that made it quite smoky in the car which made it quite hard to see and get out.
“I tried to stop the car in a good spot and I tried to get out as quickly as I could but the buckle reset itself and a couple of the belts were still in the buckle so I kind of got stuck until I worked out what was happening and then I was fine to get out.
“Not a fun experience but I was super lucky to get out with no dramas, I didn’t take in any of the smoke or that so that was all good. The team did an amazing job to get me back out there for the next day.”
The American dream
Waters last week revealed he’s eyeing a racing cameo in the United States of his own for later this year.
So, how has Shane van Gisbergen’s stunning NASCAR success affected that?
“What Shane did was awesome,” said Waters.
“I was watching it and obviously there was so many people blown away by it.
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“I don’t think it’s going to hurt anyone in this championship that’s wanting to go overseas and try other things – not just Shane and what he did but Chaz at Spa as well.
“It shows that we can step out of our bubble and be competitive.”
Opening Supercars practice in Townsville kicks off at 10:10am this morning.
