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Cam makes Formula Ford history

Posted on October 28, 2011

SUNRAYSIA race car driver Cameron Waters has made Australian Formula Ford history as the youngest driver ever to win the national title.

WINNING WAYS: Cameron Waters is interviewed by the media after becoming the youngest driver ever to win the Australian Formula Ford Championship, Photo: Wade Aunger.

At just 17, he won the championship at the penultimate round last weekend around the tight confines of the Gold Coast street circuit, with one round of the series still to run.

The Mildura driver went into the weekend with the championship firmly in his sights, content to race for enough points to take the series rather than outright wins.

But as Cameron explained, the weekend didn’t exactly go to plan, with several nervous moments in the first two races.

He started the weekend on the front foot, leading the opening race before missing a gear on the second lap, allowing his team mate, Gary Jacobson, into the lead, with another team mate close behind in third.

Several laps later came the first close shave of the weekend for Cameron after his team mate, sitting behind him in third, made a “dive bomb” pass while the three drivers were braking from 200km/h to 60km/h for a corner.

“I had a look in my mirrors and saw him coming up the inside and just tried to get out of it,” he said.

Cameron’s team mate went flying past him, crashing into the team’s race leader, breaking his hand.

The Mildura driver was passed by another competitor in the ensuing melee and settled into second place for the remainder of the race, happy to pick up another 16 points towards his 2011 national title.

Race two was over pretty quickly for Cameron, coincidently on the very same corner in which his two team mates clashed in the previous race.

“I was out in the lead pretty quickly and then made a small mistake and hit the wall,” he said.

The resulting damage meant there was no way he could finish the race, so instead he concentrated on the third and final race of the weekend the following day.

His DNF (did not finish) the previous day meant Cameron started from the rear of the grid, setting the scene for an exciting come-from-behind drive through the field.

Now a man on a mission, the 17-year-old sliced through the field to pass five cars in the first lap alone.

He then passed one or two cars per lap until he was in fifth position, meaning if the race positions stayed the same he had done enough to win the championship.

“Once I got into fifth I just went into conservation mode and just tried to finish,” Cameron said.

In doing so the Mildura driver became the youngest driver ever to win the championship.

With one round still remaining in this year’s Australian Formula Ford Championship, in Tasmania on November 11-13, Cameron said he’s looking forward to simply enjoying his racing with no pressure to take points.

“I’m just going to enjoy it and go for the round win hopefully,” he said this week after arriving back in Mildura from the Golf Coast.

With this year’s Australian Formula Ford Championship wrapped up, Cameron will move up to the Fujitsu V8 Supercar series next year, just one tier below the premier V8 Supercar series.

While negotiations are still underway to determine which Fujitsu team he’ll race for, Cameron said he also hoped to race several of next year’s V8 Supercar endurance races.

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