Waters locked in for second NASCAR Truck start

Tickford Racing star Cam Waters has been locked in for a second NASCAR Truck Series start.

Waters, 29, made his NASCAR Truck Series debut earlier this month at Martinsville Speedway with ThorSport Racing.

On the eve of the ITM Taupō Super400, Waters has been confirmed for a second tilt at the Truck Series, at the Kansas race on May 4.

The Kansas race will be held between the Taupō and Bosch Power Tools Perth SuperSprint events, with Waters approved for the race following his Martinsville debut.

"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 long as Martinsville and has an average lap speed of just on 180mph, 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 have 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' Martinsville debut was cut short after a late incident, after the Mildura-born driver ran as high as 11th. However, Waters was buoyed by his performance, saying the race was "absolutely wild."

The Taupō event will be crucial to Waters' hopes of turning his Supercars season around, with the #6 Monster Energy Ford driver 16th in the points after two rounds.

"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 Taupō this weekend," Waters continued.

"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."

Supercars will hit the track for the first time at Taupō on Friday April 18.