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Cameron Waters said he “ felt awful in the car ” during the final stages of the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000, due to a fault in the suit.
Waters chased eventual winner Shane van Gisbergen for the final 60 laps of the 161-lap race, but couldn’t find his way into the Red Bull Holden Racing Team.
The two drivers pushed hard for much of the ride, and the battle was only interrupted by two last Safety Cars.
Waters said after the race that he gave “absolutely everything he had,” revealing that he had fought inside the car without a protective suit.
“The guys told me it wasn’t working for my first season this morning. I’m not sure what happened, if it wasn’t plugged in properly and it froze, I’m still not quite sure, ”Waters said.
“I didn’t run the fresh suit for the last three periods and every lap was a qualifier so I feel pretty screwed up after that race. That was one of the toughest races I’ve ever done.
“I felt terrible in the car. Those last safety cars, I didn’t want to warm up the tires because I felt bad and things like that.
“I just wanted it to end. I threw everything at him to try to pass it, but it was not like that ”.
Waters and co-driver Will Davison had dominated the Bathurst preliminary race, including an impressive Pole ARMOR ALL in Saturday’s Top 10 Shootout.
The Monster Mustang held the lead early in the fourth stint, just after lap 50, before Davison lost track position to van Gisbergen when light rain fell on a restart.
Two Safety Cars in the final 10 laps gave Waters a shot at victory, but van Gisbergen made no mistakes and took the flag less than a second clear.
Waters said of the restarts: “The first one was probably a bit vulnerable in Turns 1 and 2 and I was close enough, I thought, to do a lunge, but I wasn’t quite there.
“In the second I tried to push him all the way until he was gone, which half worked, but he put his car in the right places, which made it very difficult.
“Congratulations to your team, you drove amazing all day. They deserved the victory, they drove well and had a fast car. “
Waters’ second-place finish and Jamie Whincup’s accident led the Ford driver to second in the championship, 451 points behind winner Scott McLaughlin.
The 26-year-old also collected the Drivers’ Driver Award at the post-race ceremony, an honor voted for by his teammates.