Cameron Hill hopeful of Bathurst return after debut

Visibility was next to zero and it was the most scared he's ever been. But Cameron Hill's Bathurst experience was "awesome". The Canberra driver hoped he'd shown he could compete at the highest level and gets another opportunity at the Great Race next year. Hill has his sights set on getting a V8 Supercars drive, but felt there weren't many spots available for 2023 outside of another co-drive at Bathurst. But that could've changed now, following the announcement Chris Pither will part ways with PremiAir Coca Cola Racing at the end of the year - opening the door for Hill to potentially take his place. The pair teamed up to take on Mount Panorama last weekend, finishing 21st overall. But Hill had the car in 12th spot when he completed his final stint in the Holden Commodore before power-steering issues struck. Hill was the first Canberran to take on Mount Panorama at the top level in 16 years. "It was awesome. I really enjoyed it. I had a really great weekend, got a lot of laps, a lot of time in the seat at Bathurst, which was fantastic," he said. "When I jumped out of the car we were in a great position. I was quite pleased with it all. "I do hope I've shown I can compete at the highest level. I held my own, I didn't make any dramatic mistakes or anything. "I'm hopeful this will give me the opportunity to come back and do it again, and I'm certainly pretty hungry to do that. "There's some discussions happening, but that's my job now - to make sure I'm back on the grid again next year. "To be full-time is the ambition. It might not eventuate next year - there isn't a whole lot of movement in the driver market. "I'll be working on putting myself in that first-in-line position." Talk about a time to make your Bathurst debut. Some of the weather was biblical. Torrential rain turned the track into a river in the lead-up to the main event, with Hill racing in the Super2 class during the deluge. He labelled it some of the most testing conditions he'd ever seen - and the scariest. Hill especially felt for the spectators who braved the weekend. "My Super2 race on the Friday, that's probably some of the worst conditions I've ever experienced," he said. "Just from the amount of water there was on the track it was pretty hard to drive it in a straight line. "To make matters worse the spray from cars in front was pretty awful - that made visibility next to zero. "Then I had my own issues with my windscreen fogging up. Essentially driving completely blind - probably the most scared I've ever been. MORE CANBERRA SPORT "As the saying [goes], 'You've just got to keep going until someone else crashes and then you're fine'." Hill's focus will now return to finishing his Super2 season. He's currently sitting fourth in the drivers championship with just the final round - at the Adelaide 500 in December - to run. "I just want to get down there and finish my season on a high," Hill said. "I'm still in contention for the championship, but I do need some of my competitors to have a bit of misfortune. "I'll try and win the races and the rest can sort itself out." We've made it a whole lot easier for you to have your say. Our new comment platform requires only one log-in to access articles and to join the discussion on The Canberra Times website. Find out how to register so you can enjoy civil, friendly and engaging discussions. See our moderation policy here. Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: