Waters relished his time with Stanaway

Cameron Waters is expecting a bright Supercars future for Kiwi Richie Stanaway after their joint success in the endurance rounds of the series.

Stanaway was Waters’ co-driver at Sandown, Bathurst and the Gold Coast and although Waters is back to driving solo in his Bottle-O Racing Ford Falcon this weekend at Pukekohe, he reflects favourably on his time with Stanaway.

‘‘We got on really well,’’ Waters said.

‘‘He’s got a similar mentality to how he goes about racing as I do, he’s pretty cruisy.

‘‘We got along straight off the bat and it was just easy, because he’s a similar size to me so we didn’t need inserts and the driver transfer stuff was easy.

‘‘He drove awesomely, so that made my job easier in the three endurance rounds.

‘‘He did a mega job and I think he’s in a good spot come next year.’’

Together, they won Sandown, led for a good part of Bathurst and finished second in Saturday’s race at the Gold Coast and it has moved Waters up to eighth in the championship.

Their results could have been better, but for a risky overtaking manoeuvre carried out by Stanaway the Gold Coast on his last lap in the car, before handing it over to Waters.

Stanaway lunged down the inside at one of the corners, collided with another car and caused damage to the Ford Falcon. Waters was waiting in his garage to jump into car No 6 when the incident happened and he admitted it was tough to watch.

‘‘I probably cringed a bit,’’ he said. ‘‘But I knew what he’d done at every other round and he put the car into contention a few times for me.’’

There were plans for Stanaway to drive in one of the Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport cars this weekend, replacing 17-year-old Alex Rullo, who has been axed from the team.

Rullo has had an abysmal season, only once finishing inside the top 20 and the team announced this week that they have parted ways.

It would have been a great publicity move to get Stanaway in the car for Pukekohe, but it’s understood that won’t now happen.

However, an announcement is expected soon that Stanaway will drive full time for Prodrive Racing Australia next season, with the team knowing that he and Waters have bright futures ahead of them.

Waters has had 12 top 10 finishes this year. He only achieved that feat five times in the whole of the 2016 season.

By Prodrive Racing Australia’s high standards, it’s not been a great year for the team, but they’ve shown that the big budget outfit is heading in the right direction.

‘‘We went to a slump after 2015 and last year was pretty bad for us as a team.’’ Waters said.

‘‘But in saying that, it helped us build for this year and we have been a bit behind the eightball because of the 2016 form.’’