Waters NASCAR return locked in
It is now confirmed Cameron Waters will return to America and contest a second NASCAR Truck Series round at Kansas.
Waters will again steer the ThorSport Racing #66 Ford F-150 supported by TRADIE, which he made his debut with recently at Martinsville.
Whilst he showed some promise around the tight ‘bullring paperclip’ of Martinsville, Kansas Speedway will be a different story, being a fast 1.5 mile tri-oval with much greater speeds.
The drive was first hinted just 15 laps into Waters’ Truck Series debut on the local Fox Sports broadcast, however, Waters admitted it was yet to be confirmed.
But now it is official and the Tickford Supercars driver cannot wait to have “another crack” at the Heart of America 200 on Friday, May 4.
Cameron Waters racing hard at Martinsville. Photo by Rusty Jarrett / NKP / LAT Images
“it’s great to be getting another crack at racing the Ford truck for ThorSport and hopefully I can adapt to the Kansas Speedway reasonably quickly,” Waters said.
“The track is almost three times as long as Martinsville and has an average lap-speed of just on 180-mph, although I have heard it’s less of a bull ring than Martinsville was.
“I’ll spend some more time in the simulator to accelerate the learning and look forward to the challenge.
“I also appreciate some news services have already mentioned the Kansas race, but what nobody knew at the time was NASCAR has stringent criteria they apply to licensing for the high-speed venues, and I needed to get through Martinsville before I could be assessed for approval to run at Kansas. This has now been completed.”
Waters showed speed during his first taste of the NASCAR Truck Series at Martinsville.
Cam Waters’ NASCAR debut ended in disaster. Photo by John K Harrelson / NKP / LAT Images
Despite never having driven the ThorSport Racing #66 Ford F-150 before, he set the 12th fastest time in practice before qualifying 22nd.
For the first three quarters of the dramatic race, Waters stayed out of trouble and was on track for a top 20 finish.
However, the debut ended in heartbreak with the Aussie forced to retire with big front end damage after rear-ending Jake Garcia amid some late-race chaos.
Much like Martinsville, Waters’ return race in Kansas is positioned nicely being exactly a fortnight after the Taupo Super400 and before the Perth SuperSprint.
Waters said he and Tickford are determined to be fighting up the front after a big repair following a troubled Melbourne SuperSprint.
NASCAR Truck Series racing at Kansas. Image: Nigel Kinrade/LAT Images
“As was the case with Martinsville the Kansas event falls nicely between the NZ and WA Supercar rounds, which works really well, and I’m super fresh and ready to go for Taupo this weekend,” Waters said.
“The team at Tickford have worked around the clock to have my Albert Park car stripped and completely rebuilt for the weekend ahead, and I’d love nothing more than to reward the collective effort with a competitive showing throughout, so bring it on.”
Main image by Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images
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