Plenty of positives for Cameron Hill in Supercars solo debut

Repco Supercars Championship rookie Cameron Hill has made a solid start to his solo full-time career at Newcastle as he finished both 250km tests on the tough street circuit.

Hill completed his first solo Supercars weekend as a Truck Assist Racing driver in Newcastle where history was made as it marked the maiden outing for the new, long-awaited Gen3 regulations, with the Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 taking over as the hero entry for The General.

It’s been a frantic lead up for Hill as Truck Assist Racing completed work on his Camaro last month as the rookie completed two and a half days of total driving prior to Newcastle.

Continued developments in set-up during the weekend started on Friday when Hill completed long runs, in addition to his first on green tyres driving the Camaro ZL1 to place 11th in the final practice session.

Qualifying on Saturday provided a hint of the potential to come as the close margins of Supercar racing were clearly demonstrated when Hill was 19th, just two tenths off making the Top 10 Shootout.

Making a good start in his debut solo race, Hill climbed to the top 15 and was on target to finish there until a fuel problem during his second stop forced him to stop a third time. Although Hill passed five rivals, the extra stop dropped to 20th at the conclusion.

Another qualifying session followed before a second 250km event on Sunday as Hill struggled with the balance and qualified 22nd, again less than three tenths away from the top 10.

Having the experience of Saturday’s 250km event to use, Hill put this on display by climbing to 15th as he again made progress at a circuit not renowned for its passing characteristics. A late-race mistake at Turn 1 dropped Hill down to 21st in the end.

Hill leaves Newcastle 22nd in the Repco Supercars Championship as the Rolex Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix awaits on March 30-April 2.

QUOTES
Cameron Hill
Truck Assist Racing

“I had a really, really good weekend,” said Hill.

“There was a bit of everything going on in those long races and plenty of battles, I really enjoyed myself. The car pace was great and we were probably trucking along towards a top 15 on Sunday, but I had that little mistake where I had to grab reverse and back up at Turn 1.

“The 250km, 95-lap races are something completely new to me, a lot of the racing has been short and sharp, and nothing at quite this sort of intensity. That was a big step up for me, but it was a big personal achievement.

“There are lots of positives I can take away from this round, we’re definitely learning more and more about this Gen3 package in terms of what it wants in both qualifying and in a race.

“Another area is how the tyres also react during a long stint, which will be interesting when we get to the Grand Prix for the shorter races on how we can exploit that.

“All-in-all, I’m really happy with how the weekend went and lots of things to take away. We’re looking forward to getting to the Grand Prix, it’s a track I’ve had some success at in the past and it’s a really cool event.

“It’ll be great to see how these Gen3 cars perform, again everywhere we’re going is unknown, so it’ll be interesting what we require to make the Camaro fast.”