Dirt track training that inspired title favourite; fears for giant of Supercars — What we learned

Fox Sports producer and motorsport analyst Tim Hodges breaks down the opening round of the Supercars season!

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CAM’S PERFECT STATEMENT WEEKEND

As defining weekends go, they don’t come more emphatic than that for Cam Waters.

Three poles. Three race wins.

It’s the perfect start to a championship tilt for the Tickford racer – who has played second fiddle to the all-conquering Triple 8 racers for longer than he would have liked.

The fact he beat both Broc Feeney and Will Brown from the Red Bull Ampol squad shows he is at the top of his game – because we know they are the top of theres.

The fact he won Saturday’s thriller on the line, by biffing and barging the pair of Feeney and Brown, showed he’s no longer intimidated by the 888 cars.

And he now holds a 60 point lead in the title fight ahead of Albert Park.

Cam is a racer.

While most of his opponents spent summer sunning themselves on an expensive boat, Waters spends his at the dirt track. Every single weekend he runs his 900 horsepower sprintcar from places as far flung as Simpson in south-west Victoria, South Australia’s Mount Gambier, and as far north as Toowoomba in Queensland.

He doesn’t need to do it – he’s certainly not doing it for the money. He does it, because he loves it.

Just likes when he want to test himself against the best in America.

He’s run previously in NASCAR’s premier Sprint Cup, he dabbled running a stock car truck, and he dreams of racing in speedway’s grandest event, the Knoxville Nationals.

He’s good for the sport of motorsport, as was his performance this weekend.

Now the challenge – to do it again at Albert Park.

TRIPLE 8 ARE BEATABLE

Triple Eight Engineering is the biggest and most successful team in the sport’s history. They win championships at will. Ditto Bathurst 1000s.

They beat up and bully and demolish the spirit of their opposition – and have done so for decades, whether it was Jamie Whincup, Craig Lowndes, Shane van Gisbergen, or the current crop of Will Brown and Broc Feeney behind the wheel.

But Cam Waters showed across the opening weekend of 2025 that Triple 8 are beatable.

Last year’s champ, Brown, had issues across the weekend with qualifying.

Feeney on the other hand qualified well, but had a puncture on Friday, a nail-biting loss on Saturday and a controversy-ridden Sunday.

Brown sits second in the title fight behind Waters.

Feeney is fourth – and now almost 100 points already behind Waters.

It’s not bad, but there’d be enormous frustration within the camp with the results.

Triple 8 has plenty on their plate right now in addition to running the Chevrolet #1 & #88 in this year’s series.

Their team is split with many working on their 2025 contenders, and much of their squad already focusing ahead to a 2026 switch from Chevy to Ford.

They are dealing with angst at seemingly every turn – from a potential 2026 engine deal that is dividing pit lane, to a split fan base – many of whom are fuming at their beloved team changing sides to the arch enemy, Ford.

Every race meeting the twin Red Bull Ampol cars will be key contenders, but there will have a to be a tipping point when the team simply drowns under the workload that’s ahead of them.

GLOVES ARE OFF

Contact between Brown and Waters and Feeney and the final frantic laps that followed had fans and experts suggesting Saturday night was the best Supercars race of all-time.

It’s a far cry from some of the lame outings the sport has had in the past handful of years – thanks in part to the biffo. Or distinct lack of it.

Lost amid Saturday night’s barnstorming race two of the championship – was the clear and definitive change in adjudicating.

Put simply – the call was to make no call from the stewards. And it ensured a finish for the ages that followed.

It then provided the wild tinderbox of emotions in pit lane immediately after the grandstand finish on Saturday night.

And it drew a line in the sand of now what is and isn’t acceptable in this year’s Supercar driving standards.

And we say it’s a brilliant decision.

As Harry Hogge famously told Cold Trickle – “He didn’t slam you, he didn’t bump you, he didn’t nudge you… he “rubbed you”. And rubbin, son, is racin”.

Let the racers race. Give them the freedom for making contact. Allow them to offer payback afterwards. And don’t have the fear of timed penalties hanging over their head like a guillotine.

If it’s good enough for NASCAR, it’s good enough for Supercars. We are pinching their season ending Finals format, after all.

SATURDAY NIGHT’S STAGE

Supercars took a gamble starting their season so early and scheduling primetime night races to kick off their new season.

Friday’s opening race of the year played out before a paltry Sydney Motorsport Park crowd and the sport would have been hoping for something special on Saturday night.

What followed was one of the races of the year in any form of motorsport.

The fact it played out in the evening, with live coverage on both Foxtel and free-to-air television – and went to the final metre to be decided is a coup for the sport.

And the fact it was held before both the AFL and NRL competitions began – allowed the sport rare and glorious clear air to shine.

Supercars is better away from footy.

It makes no sense competing with one, let alone the two biggest footy codes in the country.

There’s a reason NASCAR doesn’t start their season until the week after the NFL’s Super Bowl.

There’s a reason the biggest race in Supercars each season takes place on Mount Panorama in October after the footy codes wind up for the year.

Which presents the bigger question – should Supercars look to move away from racing when footy takes place?

Would they be a better and more viable option as a summer sport?

Supercars is the only global motorsport that runs its season through winter.

The icon Peter Brock used to hate turning up to freezing cold Winton in the depths of winter, wondering loudly why his sport wouldn’t race instead through the months outside of footy when the weather improved.

It’s food for thought for the sport.

Especially when the ratings take a pounding once footy returns. Come back and see us in May when the sport heads for freezing cold Symmons Plains in Tassie.

Is there a better way, and better time to go racing?

MOTORSPORT IS BRUTAL

The best teams in Supercars’ pit lane are some of the best teams in world motorsport.

Competing with them is brutal, especially if you’re struggling just to get out there.

Some of the cellar dwellers in the sport took a pounding on the weekend.

The sport’s minnow, Blanchard Racing reached the ultimate embarrassment – when their cars crashed into each other in qualifying on Saturday.

Former Bathurst 1000 winner David Reynolds had a howler at Team 18.

Reynolds is a dismal 22nd in the standings after a miserable 15th, 22nd and 20th from Sydney’s three races.

PremiAir Racing’s new star recruit Richie Stanaway, fared even worse.

He’s last in the title fight after the opening weekend, with a blown engine, 23rd and 17th from his three races. And a bruised ego.

As you saw on Saturday night, at the top of the pylon it’s no longer tenths of seconds separating the best in the business – it’s now hundredths and thousandths of a second.

If you’re off your game – you’re a million miles from contending.

The good news for everyone in pitlane – the next round of the series is at Albert Park in just three weeks. It’ll be the biggest sporting event on earth in March – so plenty of eyes will be watching.