Cameron Waters’ Tickford Racing Ford Mustang on track during the Townsville 500. Image: Jack Martin
The series moved away from its traditional fuel towers at the beginning of last season for sprint events in a bid to cut costs and logistical headaches for teams.
The towers were replaced by NASCAR-style churns that gravity feed fuel into the cars at the non-enduro rounds.
A side effect of the churns is that filling becomes slower as the vessel sheds fuel, encouraging teams to short-fill to save time in the pit lane and then ask drivers to fuel save to make the end of a stint or race.
Adding to the incentive is that the fuel drop rules, which mandated how much fuel a car had to take on during a race, were dumped when the churns were introduced.
The matter was particularly prominent across the 200-kilometre races in Townsville with references to fuel numbers often heard via team radio.
Kostecki wins Townsville finale, tags wall celebrating
For Waters, fuel saving proved costly in the Sunday race with a very short fill on his second stop leaving him in high conservation mode for the run to the flag.
He felt that cost him a shot of running down Matt Payne for second place and left him frustrated with the entire concept of saving fuel.
“We just didn’t get enough fuel in the car, so I had heaps of fuel saving in the last stint,” said Waters.
“I don’t think I would have got to [race winner] Brodie [Kostecki]. His middle stint was amazing, that really set up his race.
“But I reckon I could have got to the back of Matt, which would have been a cool battle.
“But yeah, I obviously didn’t have enough fuel in the car and had to fuel save and that’s the way it’s been with these fuel churns.
“It’s all about saving fuel and it’s a pretty shit way to go racing.”