CAM Waters grew up at the speedway but never got his chance to race a sprintcar.
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In 2021, as he prepares for another crack at winning the Virgin Australia Supercars Championship, the 26-year-old is realising his dream of hitting the dirt in the speedway's most popular class.
Waters, who is racing in Simpson Speedway's All-Star Challenge on Saturday night, grew up watching his father Chris in modified sedans and late models.
Chris' career included finishing third in the national modified sedan title in 1998-99. He eventually gave up his own racing career to focus on his son's.
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Cam went on to race Formula Ford and the Dunlop Super2 Series, winning both titles, before stepping up to the main Supercars field in 2016.
He has dabbled in speedway across recent years, winning a South Australian title in a late model in 2015 and a modified sedan national title in 2018.
"I spent 15 to 20 years growing up at speedways watching dad so a speedway is not new to me," Waters said.
"I have raced in Warrnambool (at Premier Speedway) in late models and Avalon in a modified production but sprintcars are new to me."
Waters hit his home track in a sprintcar for the first time last weekend after everything came together to get him a seat.
"I raced in Mildura in my first hit out and I was fast in time trials but made a bit of a mistake and was chasing the rest of the night," he said.
"I'm keen to get to Simpson as I have never raced there and it will be a learning curve as I've initially heard the track is pretty tight at one end and open down the other.
"It will be cool to get down there and get in the car.
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"The main thing was to get into sprintcars and about a month ago it was a mad rush to get a car and transporter and we didn't have a 360 engine before Mildura as two weeks ago we made the decision to race.
"I always would've liked to race in one. I have driven them a couple of times through Supercars promo days and raced late model so the next thing was sprintcars.
"The opportunity arose with Colin McQuinn, who is one of my personal sponsors, and it is all a bit of fun for us. I'm enjoying it so far."
Waters is also enjoying the challenge of stepping into a new style of car.
"It's initially different to what I have raced. The driving technique and what to do in the car is different and every style of car I have got in is unique," he said.
"I've got to know how to pick them up and after that I won't have any issues. Getting up to speed is a lot of fun for a driver."
The Mildura export, who has two wins, 18 podiums and three pole positions in 156 races, said the racing sprintcars was beneficial to his 2021 V8 Supercars season.
"For me seat time is important and it doesn't matter what it is," he said.
"Sprintcars are pretty quick and gets you thinking in different ways.
"It's keeping me using my mind in a similar way to a supercar so I think it will have some benefits."
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