Is Cameron Shields about to announce a USF2000 drive for 2019?
18 year-old Cameron Shields may well be poised to announce he has secured a 2019 Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship seat after a teaser went live on his social media.
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#TeamCooperTire #RoadToIndy #CS73 #IndyCar #SAHOFScholarshipHolder
A post shared by Cameron Shields (@cameronshields73) on Feb 13, 2019 at 2:35am PST
Shields, from Toowoomba, competed alongside Hunter McElrea in the Australian Formula Ford Championship in 2018, with McElrea guaranteed a USF2000 race seat with his win in the Mazda Road to Indy Scholarship Shootout.
The teaser, which went up on Wednesday night across Shields’ social media, included the hashtags #TeamCooperTires #RoadToIndy, and the image itself read “2019 Season”.
Cooper Tires are the title sponsor of the USF2000 series, which is the first rung on the ‘Road to Indy’ ladder.
Shields completed two tests in Road to Indy cars at the end of 2018, and competed with McElrea at the top of the time sheets.
He told Auto Action earlier this month:
“We have received a lot of good offers from teams in USF2000, but unfortunately we’ve got a shortfall in the budget right now,”
“If we can’t meet the budget to do a full season in USF2000, there are quite a few different avenues we can take, but I’ve been solely focusing on going to the states. If not, there are plenty of other options whether its racing in a category that I’ve already done or a different one.”
“But at this stage, I’m not looking at different options until I can’t go race in America.”
In 2018, Shields simultaneously competed in Formula Ford, the CAMS PAYCE Australian Formula 4 Championship and the Australian Formula 3 Premier Series.
We’ll have updates as more is revealed.
The USF2000 season starts with a test at Homestead-Miami Speedway on March 2-3 before the opening two rounds at St Petersburg, Florida, on March 8-10.
Image: @cameronshields73 on Instagram.
