Two Australian Supercars Racers to Make NASCAR Cup Debuts at Sonoma

• This week on the road course at Sonoma, Calif., Will Brown will drive a Chevrolet Camaro fielded by Richard Childress Racing.

• Cam Waters will step into a RFK Racing Ford Mustang Dark Horse.

• Both drivers are being backed by Supercars and will carry Repco Supercars Championship branding.

For nearly a decade after Marco Ambrose returned to Tasmania no one from Australia’s Supercars ventured into NASCAR, but the drought ended last year with Shane Van Gisbergen and Brodie Kostecki and now two more will make their Cup Series debut at Sonoma Raceway.

Supercars championship leader Will Brown will drive a Chevrolet Camaro fielded by Richard Childress Racing, while Cam Waters will step into a Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing Ford Mustang Dark Horse. Both drivers are being backed by Supercars and will carry Repco Supercars Championship branding. Supercars CEO Shane Howard says the series attracted a major overseas audience after Van Gisbergen won the inaugural Chicago Street Course race in his Cup debut and Kostecki qualified 11th and finished 22nd on the Indianapolis Grand Prix Circuit.

In Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350, Van Gisbergen will be one of Brown’s spotters. Fresh off his first NASCAR Xfinity Series victory, Van Gisbergen will compete Saturday in the Zip Buy Now, Pay Later 250 Xfinity event on the 1.990-mile road course. The NASCAR Cup race will be broadcast live in Australia on Foxtel and Kayo.

“I think it shows the level of Supercars is quite high,” Waters said about the Australian and New Zealanders migrating to NASCAR. “It’s an awesome series down there (Australia). I’ve seen a few negative news articles about the drivers wanting to leave … but at the same time the category has produced such good drivers over the years. The drivers still love Supercars, and they still want to race in Supercars. It’s just more about racing a little bit more and complementing their racing programs to help them back home.”

However, American stock car racing is more physical than Supercars and it’s an adjustment those migrating to the sport must make. Van Gisbergen thought he would be penalized for spinning Sam Mayer at the beginning of the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Portland International Raceway. He said the incident bothered him throughout the race and after winning the event he went to Mayer to apologize.

“To just hit someone back, it’s not really what we do at home, but if you’re going to be racing over here it’s something you’ve got to learn and you’ve got to do,” Waters said.

NASCAR isn’t the only racing series attracting Australian and New Zealand drivers. In the NTT IndyCar Series there are Scott Dixon, Will Power, Scott McLaughlin, and Marcus Armstrong. Formula One has two drivers with Australian roots – Oscar Piastri and Daniel Ricciardo.

Waters doesn’t know why that part of the world produces such elite caliber drivers, but admits that “it’s pretty cool that there’s so much talent coming out of Australia and New Zealand, racing all around the world and doing well.”