He will return to the ThorSport Racing squad that he made two starts for last season for what will be his first appearance in a road course event.
This latest start was announced in the lead-up to the Darwin Triple Crown, however follows a covert trip to the States immediately after the Perth Supercars round earlier this month.
There he spent two days at ThorSport’s HQ in Sandusky, Ohio, for a new seat fit, and to complete a medical for the standalone NASCAR licensing system.
“After Perth, I flew out the Tuesday, and spent Wednesday and Thursday on the ground at ThorSport in Sandusky doing a seat fit, the medical to get the license and all that stuff,” Waters confirmed to Speedcafe.
“And then flew out on the Friday, back home.”
The licensing process is a consideration for the Supercars blow-ins, given the FIA-based credentials used in Supercars don’t apply.
“They have their own licensing system, but it’s much the same as ours,” explained Waters. “There’s a medical, drug test – although we don’t have to do that – you’ve got to do a diversity course, which is also about gambling and things like that, and a concussion test.”
As for on-track observation, drivers from outside the NASCAR system have a staged introduction to the various formats and track lengths.
“When I started in the Truck I could only do short ovals and road courses,” Waters added. “Once I did the short oval at Martinsville I was good to the mile-and-a-half, so I did Kansas.
“Now I can do a superspeedway in a Truck or Xfinity Series. That would be the next thing to tick off on my licence.
“But you can’t just jump in a Cup car and do the Daytona 500.”
There was a last-minute nature to the ThorSport deal, given Waters was also trying to put together a Cup Series deal for the Chicago street race.
That didn’t happen, with Waters set to fly straight home immediately after Lime Rock in a bid to lessen any jet lag issues in the lead-up to the NTI Townsville 500.
There have been times when Waters has been linked to a permanent move Stateside, although chances of that in the short term were quelled with his recent two-plus-one contract extension with Tickford Racing.
While he admits it’s a never say never situation with full-time NASCAR, Waters says a combination of full-time Supercars, several NASCAR cameos per year, and then a summer of Sprintcar racing is a good mix.
“I definitely leave the door open and would love to go over and do it full-time,” he said. “In saying that, what I’m doing here [in Australia] is still pretty cool.
“If I can go to a few races over [in the US] each year and have a bit of fun, and add the Sprintcar stuff in the summer, I think it’s pretty good racing program.
“It’s just about race cars, really, and being in different race cars and experiencing them. And if a [full-time] opportunity comes up, I’ll definitely look at it.”
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