Waters fuelled by hurt
FORD star Cameron Waters has revealed the hurt of being runner-up at Mount Panorama the past two years is driving his bid to reach the top step at the Bathurst 1000, declaring he was “sick” of talk about finishing second.
As he revealed the off-track diet fuelling his Bathurst campaign this year, Waters said he was determined to put to rest questions about consecutive second-place finishes with his first victory in the Great Race.
Waters finished second to Triple Eight star and championship leader Shane van Gisbergen at Mount Panorama in 2020 and behind the hot pace of Chaz Mostert last year.
“As good as second (place) is, it kind of hurt a bit because you could see the big trophy there right in front of you,” Waters said.
“But you just use that as motivation to come back stronger and better as a team.
“That is what we are focusing on, to be honest, putting our best foot forward and making sure we have got a really fast car, make no mistakes and go a little bit better hopefully.
“To be honest, I’m a bit sick of being asked about coming second. The best way to stop being asked about it is to go win the thing, so that’s what we’ll try to do.”
Sitting second in the Supercars championship behind van Gisbergen, Waters will team with co-driver James Moffat for the second straight year.
Waters started the 2020 race from pole position, but finished just 0.86sec behind the van Gisbergen and Garth Tander pairing. Last year, Waters admitted he and Moffat didn’t have the pace to match Mostert.
“I guess 2020 we were probably the quickest car and just the way the strategy fell we lost a bit of track position and we were just fighting to get that back all day and just couldn’t get it back,” Waters said.
“In 2021, we probably weren’t quite as competitive as we were in 2020, we were still fast, probably the third quickest car or second quickest car, but Chaz’s car was very fast.
“So, two different races for us but I think we have learned a bit from both years and (with) what we have learned through the year, we will try and merge it all together and be the quickest car again.”
Waters enters the race in strong form on the back of three consecutive podiums in the previous round at Pukekohe in New Zealand.
“We have got a bit of form on our side. This year we have been the most consistent we have been for a long time as a team across all different tracks which is really promising,” Waters said.
Like fellow driver David Reynolds, Waters has been fuelling his 2022 campaign with a largely “carnivore” diet after being introduced to it earlier in the year. Waters said the mostly meat-based diet, plus some dairy and fruit, had left him feeling strong.
“I am probably not as hard core as Dave is, but I am probably 70-80 per cent on the carnivore diet,” Waters said.
“It’s against the norm of what everyone else says is good for you, but I’m feeling good. I lost weight on it, felt fitter, just felt better in general.”