Supercars’ Cam Waters Gets To Realize His NASCAR Dream at Martinsville
Credit: Getty Images
Cam Waters, a Ford Performance driver for Tickford Racing in the Repco Australian Supercars Series, will make his NASCAR debut in Friday night’s Craftsman Truck Series race at Martinsville Speedway. Driving a fifth Ford F-150 entry for ThorSport Racing, Waters is excited to finally get a chance to race in NASCAR.
“I'm absolutely pumped, so I’m super excited to be finally having a race over here in a truck. I’ve always followed NASCAR and done a little valuable stuff myself on dirt in Australia, so to do a pavement oval is pretty cool for me and something I’ve always wanted to do.”
While on the surface it may seem as if he’s riding the coat-tails of fellow Supercars Series driver Shane Van Gisbergen, who won the inaugural NASCAR Cup Series Chicago street race last July, Waters says he’s been working on putting together a NASCAR race for over a year.
“Yeah, 100 percent. 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. 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.
Waters at Martinsville Speedway in 2023 - Credit: Supercars
“I’ve wanted to do it for years,” the 27-year-old Aussie continued, “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. I’ve just been chipping away in the background over the last 12 months to make something happen like this.”
Trying to learn as much as he can in a short period of time, Waters arrived in the U.S. a week ago and has spent time at the ThorSport shop in Sandusky, Ohio, as well as in simulator at the Tech Center in Charlotte before heading up to Martinsville.
Coming from a different racing background in Australia, Waters says he’s intrigued by the style of racing in NASCAR.
“It’s totally different to how we go racing in Australia. We have 12 weekends a year that we’re racing, where over here you’re racing every weekend. It’s pretty full-on. The style of our racing is totally different. I’ve grown up on a dirt oval background. 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.”
Credit: Ian Knight
One thing Waters is already aware of is how aggressive the racing can be in the truck series.
“I heard it's pretty aggressive over here. I've watched a fair few races, so I've kind of picked that up myself. I spoke to Shane about how he's obviously tackled racing and races and the ThorSport drivers as well have given me a few tips with how truck races go down. They say it gets pretty wild at times, so hold on. But the way I want to treat it is just finish, keep the truck clean, and learn as much as I can.”
As he approaches his first NASCAR race, Waters admits he has no expectations. As far as a full-time future in NASCAR someday, Waters can’t say.
“I definitely have a dream to one day get over here and race full-time NASCAR, but to get there it’s such a long journey and I’ve got a pretty cool thing going on in Australia racing Supercars. For me to do the odd NASCAR race like we’re doing this weekend is pretty cool, so we’ll go through this weekend and have a bit of fun and work out what NASCAR is all about and see what happens in the future.”