Darwin’s Hidden Valley Raceway is the venue for this weekend’s fourth round of Porsche Carrera Cup Australia, and Cameron Hill and his CHE Racing Team have prepared themselves for a contest that will be hot – both literally and metaphorically.
While Hill hasn’t raced since the last Carrera Cup round in April, he and his CHE Racing Team completed a successful test at Goulburn’s Wakefield Park circuit last week.
“The long break between rounds gave us a chance to do some testing, and there were a few things we wanted to work on, especially with brakes and a few areas of my driving technique,” Hill said.
“The competition in the first three rounds has been tight, and we’re at the stage where small, incremental gains can make big differences to your qualifying and race positions. No-one tests at Hidden Valley, so we expect it to be a level playing field.”
Hill is experiencing arguably the biggest increase in temperature of any driver in the Carrera Cup field; his hometown of Canberra has recently been experiencing overnight temperatures well below zero degrees, and even snowfall in the region as winter sets in.
To give his body the best chance of acclimatising to the variation in conditions, Hill has already arrived at the Northern Territory’s capital city.
“Normally on a three-day race weekend, we would arrive on a Thursday; Tuesday is very early to be rolling into town,” Hill said.
“From his experience working with athletes, our team performance manager Ben Gathercole knows the importance of properly adjusting to the weather before the start of competition, so we made the decision to arrive a bit earlier. It gives me the chance to acclimatise and makes our setup process less stressful.
“I know the races will be physically demanding, especially the 35-lap race on Saturday, so I’ve got the garbage bin ready to fill up with iced water, so I can cool down afterwards!”
Darwin Town Centre car display
Cameron Hill’s Porsche Carrera Cup car will be on display in the Darwin city centre festival zone on Thursday, 13 June from 8:00am to 1:00pm. Members of the public will be able to take photos of the car (complete with its distinctive Bullrush Rally livery).
Carrera Cup Round 4 Schedule
Australian Central Time
Friday, 14 June
9:20 – Practice 1 (25 min)
12:30 – Practice 2 (25 min)
Saturday, 15 June
11:35 – Qualifying (20 min)
14:45 – Race 1 (35 laps)
Sunday, 16 June
10:00 – Race 2 (18 laps)
12:20 – Race 3 (18 laps)
TV Coverage
All races will be shown live on Fox Sports 506 and streamed on Kayo Sports.
