Cameron Hill has claimed second place in the opening race of the 2021 Porsche Paynter Dixon Carrera Cup following a calm and collected drive at the front of the field, where the CHE Racing driver never let the race leader out of his sight.
Hill showed improvement throughout the day after finishing ninth in practice one, before elevating himself to third by the end of practice two and then holding that spot in a frantic Qualifying session which was interrupted by a red flag.
“The car came off the truck pretty well set up, I didn’t quite optimise in terms of lap time in practice one so our true pace got masked a little bit but we did make a few tweaks before practice two and then again before qualifying which definitely helped me feel more comfortable with the car,” said Hill.
A sublime launch from the line allowed Hill to quickly challenge for the race lead on the opening lap, showing excellent control on cold tyres as he settled into second place. Hill made strong progress for the bulk of the race, following the race leader and opening a healthy gap to the rest of the field behind the duo who were never separated by more than a second.
In the closing laps, Hill made big strides in attempting to shut down the remaining gap to the race leader however increasing pressure from behind and a mind to conserve tyres for the weekend’s remaining races lead to Hill staying in second place at the chequered flag.
“That race start was pretty crazy, I think everyone from the front two rows missed the apex at turn one. I was just glad to pull it up and then tuck it in behind the race leader through turns two and three, where you don’t want to get caught on the outside.”
“There were a few opportunities where I could put a bit of pressure on the leader, but once you’re out front it gives you the chance to sort of dictate the pace a little bit which they did very well. Tomorrow we get to start on the front row, I’ll get a clean look at my brake marker for turn one as well unlike today so we’ll see what we can do,” concluded Hill.
Porsche Carrera Cup has two more races this weekend, including a 30 lap feature race on Sunday morning. Both races will be shown live on Fox Sports and Kayo.
Carrera Cup Schedule:
Sunday, 21 March
12:15pm – Race 2 (30 laps)
3:20pm – Race 3 (18 laps)
