Words with Cam Waters: Tough weekend in the Top End

Well, it was a pretty average weekend in Darwin, to be honest.

When we rolled out of the truck on Friday we weren’t all that happy with the car, but we did manage to make it a fair bit better through practice.

I qualified okay on the Saturday as well, but it went south from there. In the race I got passed by Fabian Coulthard at the hairpin, so I hung on around the outside so I could pass him back into Turn 7. But we clanged wheels, which broke my upright.

That was Saturday done, in terms of getting a decent result. There were some positives; the guys did a great job to fix the car, so I got back out and scored some points. My pace was really good when I got back out, so it’s frustrating that it went the way it did.

On Sunday we changed the car a bit to try and make it better, but I just wasn’t as confident driving it. I made a couple of little mistakes in qualifying, which cost me about two-tenths – and about 12 positions on the grid. It was that close.

The race didn’t go too much better. When everyone pitted on Lap 1 under the Safety Car the pitlane was pretty blocked, but I thought I had enough room to get around Garth Tander. It turns out I didn’t. I hit his rear wheel and broke my upright again.

It was a disappointing way to finish the weekend. We had good pace, but nothing to show for it. You have those weekends, though. It makes you appreciate the good ones a little bit more.

New Wheels

In more positive news, I’ll have a new car for Townsville. Not a brand new car, but a very good one – the one that Mark Winterbottom won the title with last year.

The team at Prodrive are currently putting it together. It’s great to be able to race the championship-winning car; I just hope it remembers how to win when I get in it!

We’re testing it next Tuesday, and then we’ll take it to Townsville for me to race.

The shift isn’t necessarily about one car being much better than the other, because all the cars at PRA are pretty much identical. But it’s still nice to be in a car that’s been not only successful, but winning races very recently.

Testing Times

Next week’s test is my rookie day, and it’s a great opportunity for us to hit the track given how little testing we get to do in Supercars.

Any chance to have a drive is awesome, and coming off a disappointing weekend it will be a good chance for me get behind the wheel again and put it behind me.

It’s also a great chance to try a few things. We’ve had six events now, so we have our list of things we want to try, but are too afraid to try during a race weekend. Testing is the right time to try those things.

So hopefully we can get out there, try a few things with the car, I can try a few things with my driving, and it’ll put us in a good position for Townsville.