Cam Waters hits out at parity complaints

Tickford Racing driver Cam Waters has hit out at “parity bullshit” in the Supercars Championship after Thursday’s qualifying sessions for the Beaurepaires Melbourne 400.

The Ford Mustang driver qualified in the top five in both sessions, while the Blue Oval took four and five positions in the top ten in qualifying for races one and two respectively.

In an end-of-day press conference, the 2017 Sandown 500 winner was agitated when parity was yet again raised after another strong outing for the new Mustang, flanked by DJR Team Penske drivers Scott McLaughlin and Fabian Coulthard as well as Tickford team-mate Chaz Mostert and Holden’s sole representative, Jamie Whincup.

“The thing everyone’s forgetting…they go on about this parity bullshit but to be honest, 2017 and 2018, these guys (DJR Team Penske) were still up the front winning every weekend in whatever car it was,” he said. “We come in to this year and the only difference is Tickford has taken a step forward and the percentage is a lot closer to those guys.

“I think that’s one thing to look at when they bang on about parity and all this stuff, it takes away from all the boys that have worked the Christmas break back at the workshop.”

Waters had earlier touched on the change to the Ford Mustang from the Falcon last year, saying the change in body shape made less of a difference than the new rules around linear springs.

“My car feels worse than last year to be completely honest with you,” he said. “Twin spring and that kind of thing has definitely changed so for my car, it’s getting our head around the linear spring.

“The car’s comfortable in doing most things I want to do but there’s sections where I feel the Falcon was better last year. If it’s Falcon or Mustang, I think it’s as much or more so what we’ve done with mechanical grip.”

Team-mate Mostert was quick to add to Waters’ frustrations, adding that the constant debate had led to backlash online.

“It’s controversy too. You see it in the fans,” Mostert said. “Ever since we started talking about it, since Adelaide for whatever reason, it’s made a negative response on the fans with the media fuelling it. J-Dub was third in the last one (qualifying session), eight-one hundredths off and what car were you in? A Holden.”

Whincup quickly shot down the parity talk, saying his lack of speed was more down to mistakes and the spring changes more than anything else.

“I’m not buying in to the parity thing; I didn’t quite maximise my Q1 but got a good run in Q2 so we will go away happy,” he said. “The biggest question mark is race pace; we’re not any more unsure than anyone else but it’s going to be interesting to see what pace everyone’s got after ten or so laps.

“My car feels pretty similar actually; it’s no secret that we relied on the twin springs last year so it’s been a big change getting used to linear.”

The first race for the weekend kicks off tomorrow at 5:55pm local time with Scott McLaughlin starting from pole for the 999th Australian Touring Car Championship race.