LAS VEGAS — Rookie pavement sprint car racer Natalie Waters is among the entries for the Dec. 1-2 Open Wheel Showdown at the Bullring at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
The 19-year-old Salt Lake, Utah, driver competed with the Speed Tour Regional Sprint Car Series.
Waters got her start in pavement sprint car racing in 2018 at the age of 14. She competed in the Limited sprint car class at Rocky Mountain Raceways in Salt Lake City, Utah. The track closed following that season and Waters found herself with no place to race the sprint car.
But on that final night of racing at RMR, she won both the midget and sprint car races.
For the following four seasons, Waters would hone her skills in the Focus midgets and modifieds. The young driver was successful, winning championships with the midget and feature victories in both types of cars.
She noticed the difference when she got behind the wheel of the 410 restricted sprint car compared to the limited sprint car she had previously run in 2018.
“It had so much power. Just resting your foot on the gas gives you that jump,” Waters recalled. “That was the biggest difference. You must account for that. It changes our set up and where we have the wing and all that stuff. Even now, it’s just adding horsepower, there was so much that went with that while trying to figure the car out.”
Waters is pleased with her season and everything she learned.
“I think it’s beyond what we expected,” she explained. “My first year in a 410 winged sprint car was very, very, different from the limited sprint cars, especially at a track like Meridian Speedway. I was running the winged sprint cars at Rocky Mountain Raceways, which is a much bigger and wider track. My only goal for this season was to finish every race.
“It didn’t matter where we started, I just wanted to finish every race.
“Our next goal after that was to progress and every race we did that. The only race we didn’t finish was the Skunk Cup 50 at Magic Valley Speedway in Twin Falls, Idaho,” she said. “The car overheated that night. Other than that, we did very well.
“Since we had done so well, we decided to run the big two-day show at Colorado National Speedway over July 4 weekend.
“We were never going to do the Diamond Cup, Pink Lady Classic or Open Wheel Showdown. But we did so well in Colorado and didn’t tear anything up and decided to do some of the bigger races this season.”
“When we went to Diamond Cup at Meridian Speedway, we did really good at Diamond Cup,” Waters continued. “I was at the top of the board in practice. I had a really, really, good qualifying lap and finished the race. So then it turned into ‘let’s do the Pink Lady Classic and the Las Vegas Open Wheel Showdown.’”
The Pink Lady Classic on Sept. 23 may have been the race that got Waters noticed.
After damaging the car in the Friday night preliminaries, the Waters crew worked late into the night to get the car ready. Waters would only have the last chance race to make the event. Waters made her way through into the 100-lap main event.
Waters drove an impressive race, moving forward to finish 11th in the second segment. Only the top 10 cars advanced to the final segment.
“The Pink Lady was crazy,” Waters recalled. “We were up all night before trying to decide if we should do it. We go every year to run the midget and watch the sprint cars. Just the cars that get torn up, and stuff like that. We were nervous to put the car on the track with all those other very talented drivers. Everything ended up working out really well.”
Now Waters prepares for the toughest challenge of her racing career.
She will test her ability against the toughest winged pavement sprint car drivers in the country in an event that pays $50,000 to win. Waters is one of the few drivers with experience at The Bullring having raced her midget at the three-eighths-mile asphalt track.
“When my Grandpa, John Waters, called and asked if I wanted to do it, I said, ‘Why not?’” Waters related. “The publicity I will get just by showing up because this is going to be such a big event is going to be good for me. So many big names are going to be there and I want to support this big event because I grew up around sprint car racing. It will be such a moment.”
Waters is a sophomore marketing major at Utah State University in Logan, Utah.
“I work at the Buckle here at the Logan Mall. I had a lady come in here and I was helping her shop. She asked if I was going to school up here and I told her I was and I was majoring in marketing,” Waters explained. “She asked what sparked my interest in marketing. I told her I race and to race you must get sponsors and need to market yourself. When I showed her a picture of my car she said, ‘Oh my Gosh, I’m going to Las Vegas at the end of the year to watch them.’
“I was shocked that somebody not in my sprint car racing community, in the middle of Utah, is going to the Open Wheel Showdown in December,” Waters said. “I thought it was ironic and crazy. I also see so much about this race every day on different platforms.”
Waters has modest goals for the Showdown, which will be broadcast live by SPEEDSPORT.tv.
“This is my first year in 410 sprint cars, just to make the feature would put me on cloud nine,” she said. “I’m not going there to set the world on fire. I’m going there to get more experience and support the event. Just making the show for us would be huge.”