Cameron Hill has averted disaster after a high-speed excursion in the final race of the weekend in Round 3 of Carrera Cup at Phillip Island today.
Starting fifth on the grid after a penalty was applied to another driver in yesterday’s second race, Hill became involved in a physical battle with several other cars before the Safety Car was deployed due to an incident on the opening lap.
When the race restarted, the skirmish continued and Hill ran wide at the final corner, skating through the grass and losing his front splitter.
With no front downforce, Hill was left to battle an evil-handling Porsche for the remainder of the race, but he salvaged a 14th-place finish to preserve sixth in the standings.
“When the race restarted after the Safety Car, there was some pretty aggressive driving and I was in a battle pack. I may have had some pre-existing damage because I understeered off the track at Turn 12.
“From that point, I just had to bring the car home and lose as few places as possible. At such a fast track, front downforce is critical and I was losing a lot of speed with no front splitter.”
Hill said the two-month break before the next round will give the team a chance to regroup.
“I still feel like we’re on the cusp of achieving some really good results; we’ve shown glimpses of form at each round this year, and we just haven’t quite put an entire weekend together,” he said.
“The next two rounds are at tracks where teams don’t do any testing, which will level the playing field.”
The attention of Hill and the CHE Racing Team now turns to next weekend’s Bathurst 6 Hour endurance race, where they will run a Toyota 86 for Formula Ford drivers Tom Sargent and Lachlan Mineeff.
Round Results Summary
Qualifying: 7th
Race 1: 6th
Race 2: 5th
Race 3: 14th
Overall: 7th
Top 10 Championship Points
1. Dale Wood – 478
2. Jordan Love – 457
3. Nick McBride – 388
4. David Wall – 355
5. Warren Luff – 313
6. Cameron Hill – 280
7. Michael Almond – 255
8. Thomas Maxwell – 243
9. Cooper Murray – 232
10. Josh Hunt – 179
