Cam Waters is the latest Repco Australian Supercars Series driver to travel across the world to compete in NASCAR.
On Friday night at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway, Waters is scheduled to make his NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series debut driving for ThorSport Racing.
Waters is set to join the likes of Shane van Gisbergen and Brodie Kostecki in competing in one of NASCAR’s three national touring series in the last two years. Notably, three-time Supercars champion Scott McLaughlin made the transition to NTT IndyCar Series racing a handful of years ago. He now competes full time for Team Penske in the open-wheel series.
While it’ll be Waters’ first time in a NASCAR truck, the 10-time Supercars winner experienced Martinsville from the grandstands last year.
“I’ve wanted to do it for years, but with what I do in Australia has always been my focus and still is my focus, for sure, but we came to Martinsville 12 months ago and watched a race and that’s what probably sparked a bit more interest in me to pursue it,” Waters said.
“I’ve just been chipping away in the background over the last 12 months to make something happen like this.”
With the fire burning inside to get a deal together, Waters saw fellow Supercars driver Shane van Gisbergen stun the NASCAR world by winning last July’s inaugural Chicago Street Race for the NASCAR Cup Series while driving for Trackhouse Racing.
“I’ve been wanting to do something like this for a long time and Shane was super lucky with how his stuff all came together and I was super happy for him and how Chicago went was obviously amazing,” Waters said.
“For me, it’s been something that I’ve wanted to do for a long time and it’s just great to finally be able to pull something together and do this race.”
Supercars may not compete on ovals, however, Waters is accustomed to oval racing in a different capacity – grassroots racing on dirt.
“I’ve grown up on a dirt oval background,” Waters said. “My dad used to race. I’ve raced sprint cars, late models, modifieds, so oval stuff isn’t new to me, so I wanted to come over and experience the pavement oval.”
The 29-year-old doesn’t have plans past Friday to compete on North American soil. Ahead of his bout in the Truck Series, Waters has low expectations and is focused on keeping his truck clean.
“I think Friday night, if we can keep the truck clean, like I said, and take in as much as I can, I think that’d be good,” Waters said. “I’ve kind of got no expectations. I don’t really know how I’m going to go. It’s going to be kind of jumping in the deep end, so to speak, with the limited practice and not being able to drive the truck beforehand.
“Right now, this is the only thing we’ve kind of got set in stone. It’s kind of hard with my schedule in Australia. I’m going after a championship over there. This race fit in pretty perfectly between AGP and Telpo to fit in a race.
“Really just need to get through this weekend and see how we go and go home, go to New Zealand, and try and win some races over there to get my Supercar championship back on track.”