Extra Bathurst miles breeds confidence for Cameron Hill

Matt Stone Racing’s entry in last weekend’s Repco Bathurst 12 Hour will be advantageous when the Supercars begin its season at Australia’s hallowed piece of tarmac according to Cameron Hill.

Undertaking his second season in the Repco Supercars Championship, it’s a case of continuity for Hill as he remains at Matt Stone Racing, the experienced Paul Forgie is retained as his race engineer and Gen3 enters year two.

This is not to say there are some changes as Hill can leverage off the experience of new teammate Nick Percat and welcomes Tyrepower as major sponsor for the first two rounds including the Thrifty Bathurst 500, which will open the Repco Supercars Championship. Another change is the switch to #4 due to its significance to the Stone family due to the success achieved with it in Supercars competition during the mid-2000s.

Hill has clocked up the miles having been the first driver to hit the track outside of parity or shakedown running using a Rookie Test Day on January 31 and later participating in the official Supercars session for all Queensland teams at Ipswich on February 5.

Combining this with his recent run in the Repco Bathurst 12 Hour, which yielded a podium, has increased Hill’s confidence based on the amount of seat time he has achieved during leading into the season.

Hill last year achieved multiple top 10 results in race and qualifying during his rookie season highlighted by eighth in Tasmania.

The Thrifty Bathurst 500 will open Hill’s second Repco Supercars Championship campaign on February 23-25.

QUOTES

Cameron Hill
#4 Matt Stone Racing, Chevrolet Camaro ZL1

“It’s a good feeling to be coming back with a season under my belt,” revealed Hill.

“There were so many question marks heading to Newcastle last year in regards to ‘what it was going to be like?’ ‘Am I up for it?’ But 12 months down the line I’ve done a lot of Supercar miles in the books now and I’m feeling a lot more ease heading into Bathurst.

“The mentality changes from ‘let’s just turn up and survive’ to ‘let’s try to maximise everything here’ because I think we showed last year if we do everything right and execute well, we can be in the top 10. That’s the goal from first practice when we get to Bathurst.

“It’s great to be working with Paul Forgie, my engineer from last year again. He’s got years and years of experience dating back to Marcos Ambrose in the #4, so it’s good to be rolling in with a team that is very similar. Obviously Nick is new, but he’s settled in pretty quickly during the test day and I think he’ll fit in quite well.

“There is no other track like Bathurst. I love driving there, it is a challenge and it never gets easier, you just keep getting faster is a famous saying. I can’t wait to get there and sink my teeth into it.

“It’s been a short off-season, but I think we’re all ready to go and get stuck in.