Canberra driver Cameron Hill joins Supercars with Matt Stone Racing

But the 26-year-old will become the first full-time Canberra driver in the top level of Australian motorsport since 2004 after he signed with Matt Stone Racing for the 2023 season on Friday.

He hopes a Canberra Supercars race could also make a return - there's a small group of mostly Canberrans working in the background to make that happen.

Hill will drive a Chevrolet Camaro alongside MSR teammate Jack Le Brocq, having replaced Todd Hazelwood at the team.

Dale Brede was the previous Canberran to have a fulltime drive in Supercars - driving a Holden Commodore for Team Dynamik in the 2004 campaign.

Hill has been able to draw on Brede's experience as a mentor throughout his motorsport journey.

He'll take his major sponsor Supaglass Industries across with him to MSR.

Hill finished 21^st in his Bathurst debut, where he was the co-driver for Chris Pither and PremiAir Coca Cola Racing.

It was after that Bathurst drive - where Hill had the car in 12^th spot when he finished his final stint behind the wheel, before power-steering problems struck.

Stone reached out to Hill in the wake of that drive to see if he might be interested in joining MSR and things progressed quickly after that.

"I'm pretty pumped. Obviously it's the stuff you dream of when you're growing up as a kid watching it on the TV," Hill told The Canberra Times.

"It's pretty mega. I sometimes have little moments and go, 'Ooh, it's real'.

"[Brede] had a stint in the early 2000s and Bredey's been a great supporter of mine and a bit of a mentor so I'm quite lucky to have guys like him to bounce off.

"It'll be cool to represent Canberra. We haven't had a driver in top-level motorsport here for a long time.

"Hopefully I can give everyone someone to cheer for and maybe a Canberra race would look good as well."

Hill felt the fact all the teams were starting with a clean slate - they're all moving to Gen3 cars next season - opened the door for him to hit the ground running.

It will come down to how quickly each team's able to set up their new cars.

He was hopeful his would be ready at the end of January and then he'd have one or two test days before the flag falls on the new season in the Newcastle 500 on March 10-12.

"It's the first time for a long time that every team is starting with the same base - all brand-new cars, they're essentially going to be the same in their specification," Hill said.

"So every team has the opportunity, whereas the last few years the front teams have been able to race away with better development.

"It's a great opportunity for me, as a rookie driver, to step in on a level playing field."

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Hill's worked his way up through the grades since starting in go-karts in Canberra as a nine-year-old.

He won the Australian Formula Ford Championship in 2015, and then finished second and third in the Toyota 86 Racing Series.

Hill took out the Porsche Carrera Cup in 2021 and currently sits fourth in Super2 - the tier below Supercars - with one round to go.

Until recently, Hill thought he'd be going to the final race in Adelaide - which begins December 1 - driving for his future.

Now he can take a more measured approach.

"It is funny. It certainly changes the approach to the weekend. If I didn't have this opportunity I probably would've been going there with the mentality I'm driving for my career," Hill said.

"But for me it's a little bit more relaxed that I know what I'm doing next year. I can just enjoy the driving experience, learn more - it's a track we'll be racing at again next year - so just keep on building to hit the ground running next year."

MSR were interested in Hill because he's more than just a race driver - he also runs his own team, meaning he understands the whole industry.

Hill said he would continue to be involved in Cameron Hill Racing, which races in Formula Ford, but he might have to step back a little bit.

"Having one full-time gig's obviously not enough," he joked.

"I'll be investing a lot of my time into the Supercar driving and making sure I'm as prepared as I can be all the time, but definitely still have an involvement with our race team back home in Canberra.

"We've still got a team of young Formula Ford drivers lined up for next year and it will be exciting to see how they progress.

"It'll be a little bit less hands on for me in the workshop, but from an organising, planning and managing [perspective] I'll still be involved in it."

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