CAMERON Waters expects Chaz Mostert to mount a serious threat for the 2022 Repco Supercars Championship title, predicting Walkinshaw Andretti United to continue its forward march.
The Tickford Racing ace ranks former teammate Mostert and defending champion Shane van Gisbergen as his main rivals for the title ahead of the season opener at Sydney Motorsport Park this weekend.
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This year marks the third season for Mostert and engineer Adam De Borre at WAU and follows a stunning Bathurst 1000 victory for the revitalised squad last December.
Mostert finished fifth in the 2020 championship before clocking a career-best third last year behind Triple Eight duo van Gisbergen and the now retired Jamie Whincup.
WAU is expected to be further boosted by the arrival of driver Nick Percat and engineer Geoff Slater this season, from Brad Jones Racing and Team Sydney respectively.
“Shane will be up there. Chaz will definitely be competitive, I think (Walkinshaw Andretti United is) going to step it up again this year,” Waters told the Castrol Motorsport News Podcast.
“I would put Shane and Chaz as the main competition at the moment.
“DJR, they are probably still a little bit up and down. Last year they were up and down at times, but definitely have their tracks they are super strong at.
“To me they need to fix that, kind of like us, with our tracks we were up and down at.
“So (van Gisbergen and Mostert) are the main two. Plus maybe Anton (De Pasquale).
“The Erebus guys (Will Brown and Brodie Kostecki) are probably still a little bit young. They have been pumped up a little bit after the SMP form they had. But they will keep improving as well.
“It’s going to be a tough year, for sure. There are six guys that can have a shot at it, but there’s probably two or three, maybe four, realistically that can get it.”
Hear more from Waters on this week’s Castrol Motorsport News Podcast, which features a preview of the 2022 Repco Supercars Championship and much more.
Waters finished second to Scott McLaughlin in the 2020 championship and started last year strongly, but slumped to fifth in the final standings after a tough run across the four Sydney rounds.
“It was a little disappointing in the end, but we were probably the second-best car for a lot of the year until we went to SMP,” reflected Waters.
“We had a bit of bad luck through the year which put us on the back foot. But we were the second-best car until SMP, and then everybody wrote us off after SMP.
“We weren’t ready, to be honest, to go after a title, to be consistent at every single track. That’s something we’ve focussed on in the off-season.
“Hopefully we’ve ticked a few of those boxes and we can be strong at every single track and not just Tickford’s strong tracks.”
