Canberra racer Cameron Hill has survived an incident-strewn opening Carrera Cup race at the OTR Bend SuperSprint, to take his third-consecutive race victory in the series today.
The conditions at the South Australian circuit were wet for both qualifying and race one, testing the abilities of the drivers and teams.
Hill was third-fastest in the qualifying session and was satisfied with his car’s performance.
“I was fairly conservative early in the session, because the track was progressively improving and I wanted to have enough life left in the tyres to attack at the end,” Hill said.
“A dry line started to form on the track, but the wet tyres became hot so the performance of the car plateaued at that point.”
In the race, Hill slotted into fourth position, but absolute pandemonium unfolded behind him, with multiple cars involved in a catastrophic pileup on the main straight.
The Safety Car was deployed for several laps while the stricken Porsches were removed from the circuit. When the race restarted, the top three cars collided in the first corner, handing Hill the lead. The Safety Car was deployed once again and led the field to the chequered flag, assuring Hill of the race victory.
While he was satisfied with the result, Hill said he was sorry to see the amount of damage sustained by his fellow competitors.
“I’m happy with the first-place finish, but they’re not the circumstances in which I wanted to win – you never want to see your rivals involved in those sorts of incidents,” Hill said.
“I’m thankful I qualified ahead of where the first crash happened. At the restart, I sensed there was going to be some drama, so I positioned my car to give myself the best chance of avoiding it, and fortunately it worked to my advantage.
“The car worked well in the wet today, but the conditions are expected to clear up tomorrow, so as a team we’ll have to work hard to ensure we have a good package for a dry circuit.”
The second Carrera Cup race takes place at 11:15am (Adelaide time) tomorrow, with race three at 2:25pm.
