PODCAST: Waters dominates opening round
Rough and tumble racing sets new standard for 2025.
Tickford Racing’s Cam Waters grabbed the Championship by the scruff-of-the-neck with a clean sweep of the opening round of the 2025 Supercars Championship, claiming all pole positions and winning all three races.
All the talk at Sydney was just how close the racing was. Under lights on Saturday night the race may have been 200 kilometres but it was decided in the last 200 metres.
Waters was second coming onto the main straight, but in a flat-out drag to the flag, Triple Eight’s Broc Feeney struggled to hold Waters off as the ‘Monster’ car inched past to be in front right on the line.
The race was one of rough and tumble as Waters and Feeney swapped paint on a several occasions.
An early safety car caused by PremiAir driver Ritchie Stanaway, when his car was stranded on the track with a blown engine, sent almost the whole field to the pits at once resulting in a hairy moment when Waters was blocked by Feeney’s Triple Eight teammate Will Brown in a well orchestrated ‘double-stack’ maneuverer.
Feeney, now leading started to dictate the race to Waters.
The Tickford team had to pivot, and in a change of tyre strategy, Waters went long before his final pitstop giving him fresher tyres for the run home.
A tricky passing manoeuvre resulted in Feeney having a half-spin/slide. The dubious passing move, and possible penalty, forced Waters to readdress the position with Feeney, while simultaneously, holding off a charging Will Brown.
Race control deemed ‘no further investigation’ which allowed the results to stand despite team Triple Eight being less than impressed with some of the on-track ‘rubbing’.
It sparked debate amongst the drivers as to what the driving standards for the rest of the season would look like.
You can hear all about it in this week’s episode of the Race for the Championship podcast brought to you by VACC Automotive Apprenticeships and Supercars Travel.
If the weekend’s racing is anything to go by for 2025, then Supercars has a bright future.
Speaking of the future, Race for the Championship also caught up with RACE Chairman Barclay Nettlefold to discuss the state of Supercars.
The boss of the series owner talked about the latest controversy in the sport with Triple Eight expected to take over as Ford’s homologation team when they move marques for next year. He believes that all publicity is good for the sport
Nettlefold also indicated that the Perth street race for 2027 is all set to be signed off very soon and is not at all concerned about the recent revelation that the local council has opposed the event.
