Waters hopes track familiarity will breed success

HE’S one of the youngest drivers in the Supercars championship, but Cameron Waters is banking on his Reid Park experience to inspire a winning weekend for the Townsville 400.

The 22- year- old is in just his second season as a full- time Supercars driver, but he’s no stranger to the Townsville street circuit, having won the Dunlop Series round in 2015.

Waters finished first and second across the weekend as part of an in- credible seven- race winning streak that saw him take out the overall crown and make the step up to Supercars with Prodrive Racing Australia.

Reid Park presents a unique challenge for even the most experienced drivers with its mix of street circuit and dedicated racetrack, but Waters said it was a huge boost already knowing what it takes to win at Townsville.

“I’ve raced Dunlop Series a few times here and won the round and won a few races. It’s quite unique to drive and set the car up as well,” Wa- ters said. “It helps to be able to go to a round and know the track, whereas last year I went to a few tracks which I didn’t really have that much experience on.

“It gets you up to speed in practice a little bit quicker. I really like the event here and I really like the track.”

Waters finished 19th in the Supercars championship in his rookie season, but he’s worked his way up to ninth this year on the back of three straight top- 10 finishes. He admitted he still had work to do heading into Townsville, but felt he’s grown in leaps and bounds since his rookie year when he finished in the top 10 just five times.

“I’ve been pretty happy with how this year’s gone. Last year was really up and down as a rookie and this year we’ve found that consistency and found a little bit more speed as well,” Waters said.

“We didn’t have the best weekend in Darwin pace- wise, but we’ve found a few things since then so if we can get a bit of that back then we’ll have a good weekend.”