CHICAGO, Ill. - Newman Wachs Racing is thrilled to announce that Australian Cameron Shields will join the team for the 2019 Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship.
The Toowoomba, Queensland, native may be new to the Road to Indy Presented by Cooper Tires, but he’s no rookie in the world of racing. In just short four years competing in cars, Shields has built an impressive resume that includes an impressive 52 wins out of 154 races entered, running in Australian Formula 3, Formula 4 and Formula Ford. Shields sampled the waters in the US last September by testing an Indy Pro 2000 car at the 2018 Chris Griffis Memorial test, but found that a USF2000 car would be a better fit for this year.
“I’m very excited to have Cameron signed with the team for the 2019 season,” said Brian Halahan, NWR Team Manager. “I think his racing history speaks for itself and I expect to be fighting for wins right out of the box. The combination of his experience and our engineer John Hayes’ knowledge should be a powerful combination. St. Petersburg cannot come soon enough!”
Cameron started racing at the young age of six in junior motocross, winning a remarkable 21 times with 34 podiums. In 2010, Shields had decided that four wheels were more his style and he began karting at the junior level, winning 42 races with 73 podiums during his six years in the sport. In 2015, he competed in his first Formula Ford race at age 14. Then in 2016, he began his full-time open-wheel car racing career, getting his feet wet running in the Australian Formula 3 series, taking the National class championship.
Heading into the 2017 season, Shields was awarded a Confederation of Australian Motorsport (CAMS) Rising Star Scholarship to compete in to the Australian Formula 4 series where he finished third in the championship, which earned him the CAMS Young Driver of the Year award. He also competed in Australian Formula Ford series finishing second in the championship, with a combined 17 wins between the two series. Last season, he scored 18 wins enroute to runner-up status in the Australian Formula 3 Premier Championship.
Shields will race with the valued support of Dependable Sheds, HRX, Vision Sports Science, Speak Up for Sport, the Sport Australia Hall of Fame (SAHOF), and mentor Graeme Lloyd; two-time World Series winner with the New York Yankees. Cameron was the recipient of 2019 SAHOF scholarship and mentor program and received a $5,000 (AUS) scholarship which he invested in testing at the end of last season to prepare for the upcoming USF2000 season. Cameron is also fortunate to count NTT IndyCar Series driver Will Power and his father Bob as mentors to help guide his career aspirations.
“I am very pleased to announce that I will be joining with Newman Wachs Racing ahead of the 2019 Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship,” Shields enthused. “Newman Wachs Racing is a very professional team, with a long history of results to back that up and I am full of confidence that together this season we can continue that trend of success with the ultimate goal of becoming the 2019 Cooper Tires USF2000 champions! It has been a very tough journey over the Christmas break to ensure that I could be on the grid this season. Without the help of my parents, Will Power, Bob Power and Charles Crews, alongside every member of NWR, there is no way I would be returning to America, so I would like to sincerely thank each of them and all NTT IndyCar Series and Andersen Promotions personnel whom I have interacted with over the last six months for the upcoming series championship."
The team has been hard at work since the end of last season testing multiple drivers, while competing in the Trans Am Series, along with the 2018 NASA 25 Hour and the 2019 PBOC Winterfest. With Nolan Siegel having been officially confirmed for the 2019 Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship, the team is looking to add an additional driver to the line-up ahead of the opening round at St. Petersburg on March 8-10.