'Fire in the belly' fuels Cameron Hill amid Supercars chaos at the Australian Grand Prix

The Chevrolet Camaro driver says it with a grin, but it's a fair assessment given the second of four Supercars races at Melbourne's Albert Park was nothing short of chaotic.

The engine of Walkinshaw Andretti United's Nick Percat caught fire. Ford veteran James Courtney had his podium finish pulled after being hit with a time penalty. David Reynolds headed off track into the gravel on turn one. Jack Le Brocq crashed into a wall on lap seven. First-time victor Brodie Kostecki claimed the win as the sprint ended under a safety car at the midway point.

So for Hill, just getting through it felt like a little win worth celebrating.

"It started with some delays to our race because there were some crashes in the Formula 3 session before us, so the race was delayed," Hill said of Friday's instalment.

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"Time certainty comes into question, because there's only so much time before the F1 go back on track. They rushed us out there, rushed through the procedure.

"It was almost like, because everyone knew the race was going to be short, everyone went berserk and there were cars going everywhere.

"It was intense, I think it was eight laps and half of them were green laps. It was just kind of pass or be passed. It was intense, but I had a good start and stayed out of the trouble. We had a good pit stop and managed to move up five or six spots which was positive."

Qualifying for the third and fourth races of the event took place on Saturday morning, with Hill finishing 18^th and 20^th respectively before he turned his attention to race five of the season in the evening.

The sixth race of the season - the last Supercars sprint of the weekend - takes place on Sunday morning before the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix takes centre stage for 58 laps.

Through it all, Hill still spends moments pinching himself.

He arrived at the Newcastle 500 - the first event on the Supercars calendar - last month with no expectations but a desire to learn, soak it all in and finish the races.

But when the Canberra product got to Melbourne, he had "a fire in the belly" to push his way up the grid and compete with some of the sport's biggest names.

"Every now and then you go '12 months ago I was dreaming of being here, and now I'm here'. It's not lost on me and I'm really relishing it," Hill said.

"It's definitely pretty cool when you look at the guys you're racing. I was racing against Will Davison and Andre Heimgartner. Those guys have won races and are stars of the sport, and I thought 'I'm out here racing them and trying to keep them behind me'. It is pretty cool, I am enjoying it.

"The car is the same for everyone, they're still quite fast and tricky to drive. Everyone is going to work out how to drive these cars fast very quickly.

"The level is seriously high, there's 25 cars and all 25 drivers are at a very high level. It's not something we have very often in motorsport, just such competitive fields.

"It's obviously an awesome event, the atmosphere is quite unique and the amount of people here is really cool to see. It will be cool to race in front of all the fans and then watch the F1 race as well."

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