Cameron Hill put on a mega drive to claim a top 10 result in the Team PPQ Camaro on Saturday at the NTI Townsville 500.
Having qualified 19th in a tight quali session, Hill got turned around on the opening lap and fell to the back of the field.
However, the Canberran charged back up the order with an outstanding drive and a well executed fuel and tyre strategy.
He was often lapping as the fastest car in the race, working his way up to 10th at the chequered with two late-race passes.
The Bendix Racing Camaro of Nick Percat was unfortunately also caught up in an opening lap incident, but was less lucky.
Percat’s car sustained damage to the right-rear upright and was called into the garage for repairs, losing more than 10 laps to the leaders.
It was another ‘what could have been’ scenario with Car #10 showing good pace, and Nick’s own fastest lap of the race was quicker than the cars on the podium.
While luck wasn’t on our side, the day showed a lot of promise heading into another qualifying session tomorrow and the final 250km race of the weekend.
QUOTEBOARD
“I felt like that was one of my best drives so far in my career. To get turned around on Lap 1 and be dead-last by some 10 seconds or more, I didn’t really think we were going to be able to get back into the top 10. The car was awesome, we played a really good strategy and it was cool to pass some cars in the last stint and get back in the top 10. Big thanks to the whole Matt Stone Racing team for giving me a fast race car.”
Nick Percat – Driver of Car #10:
“It wasn’t ideal but that’s just motorsport; so I just drove around for 70 laps. Had a play with some different lines and different ways to try and save the tyres for tomorrow’s race. Couldn’t do too much about the ballast because it was still a little bit damaged from the hit. The boys did a mega job to get it back on track and obviously score points for the team — those are the races that you get to at the end of the year and you’re grateful you got the extra points. I think there’s plenty of positives from Cam’s car in race trim, so we’ll have a look at that tonight and go again tomorrow.”
