Words with Cam Waters: Those cruel Gold Coast kerbs

This year’s Gold Coast 600 is a bit of an anniversary for me.

It’s pretty much a year since I got the call up to become a full-time Supercars driver with Prodrive Racing, to replace Chaz Mostert after his nasty crash at Bathurst.

I know what to expect a lot more heading to the Gold Coast this time around. I’ve been racing the main series guys for 12 months now, and there’s no doubt that spending that sort of time at this level helps you up your game.

I was actually just looking at some of the data from the Gold Coast last year, and I can see right there on the screen how far I’ve come as a driver.

So I’m excited to go back there and build on what I’ve learnt over the last 12 months. It’s a cool joint; massive kerbs, walls everywhere, and it feels more like a street race than an enduro.

You need a good car to be quick there, but even more important than that is having a straight car at the end. It’s a hard race, it’s hard on the car and it’s hard on the drivers as well because of the Queensland heat.

Cruel to be kind

You feel really cruel when you drive a Supercar around the Gold Coast street circuit. You hit those kerbs so hard that you feel like you’re smashing the car.

But it’s the only way to be fast around there, so you have to do it. Most street tracks are the same; you’ve got to use the kerbs as much as possible, and be right up against the walls to get the most out of the car. That’s what makes them so challenging. You can’t be worrying about the car and whether it’s up to it or not, you have to trust that it will deal with the beating it gets.

It’s definitely a different challenge to Bathurst, which is a fast, flowing circuit. On the Gold Coast it’s point-and-shoot, it’s a completely different circuit.

In terms of expectations, it’s always hard to say at these endurance events. In saying that, the same goes for every race in 2016 – it’s just been that kind of season. This season it’s been a case of three or four guys always being in the Top 10, and the rest is hard to pick. We know the Triple Eight drivers will be strong, they always are there. And we hope we’ll be right in the mix as well.

For me, I’m going to put all my eggs in the qualifying basket. If I can nail that, it’ll set up our race. And that’s one area where I still need to improve, getting that last tenth or two out of the car in qualifying.

If I can do that, and qualify well inside the Top 10, then our race will get a lot easier.