CAM Waters has leant on his recent Supercars rivals Shane van Gisbergen and Brodie Kostecki ahead of his NASCAR debut this weekend.
Waters is preparing to tackle a Truck Series race aboard a ThorSport Ford F-150 on the half-mile Martinsville oval, taking the first step towards his dream of becoming a full-time NASCAR driver.
Van Gisbergen has made that move this year, relocating to the United States to run a full-time Xfinity program and selected Cup Series races after famously winning on debut in the top tier last July.
Kostecki also did a Cup Series race last August and had been slated for more events in 2024, prior to his current contract impasse with Supercars squad Erebus Motorsport.
“We all kind of talk,” said Waters of the trio. “I went and caught up with Shane the other day. We went and played some Top Golf together here in Concord.
“I talk to Brodie all the time. We’re always trying to help each other when we can, you know, when it’s not in the Supercar series.
“Obviously, it’s a little bit different now with Shane going and Brodie’s having a year off. As much as we’re competitors, we want to see each other do well.”
Not unexpectedly, the wild nature of the NASCAR racing – particularly on a bullring like Martinsville – has come up in dicussions.
“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,” added Waters.
“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.”
While Waters is following in the footsteps of van Gisbergen and Kostecki in heading Stateside, he makes clear that his ambitions pre-dated SVG’s breakout NASCAR triumph.
Waters scoped out the NASCAR scene at Martinsville 12 months ago and describes his ThorSport deal as 18 months in the making.
“I’d already kind of started dialogue with ThorSport and whatnot before Shane had even done a deal to do the Chicago race,” he said.
“So it’s something that I’ve been looking at doing for a long time… this hasn’t just come out of nowhere.
“Where it leads to, I’ve got no idea. But at the moment, it’s just something that I’ve always wanted to do. It’s a bit of a bucket list thing and I think it’s gonna compliment my Supercar program.”
Waters, 29, doesn’t know exactly where it will lead, but he knows where he wants it to go.
“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,” he said.
“For me to do the odd NASCAR race like we’re doing this weekend is pretty cool.
“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.”
