Hill relieved to arrest slide as cut-off approaches

Cameron Hill was pleased to secure a top 10 finish in the final race of the Darwin Triple Crown amid a lean run for the third-year Matt Stone Racing driver.

The Canberran was one of the stars of the early season, securing his first podium and race win in Melbourne, before backing it up with another strong podium in Taupō.

Across the opening three rounds of the championship, Hill's average finish was 9.89, however in the last three rounds in Tasmania, Perth, and Darwin, that has slipped to just 13.78.

Whilst bad luck in the Perth finale - namely his car failing to fire on the grid for Race 16 - didn't help his cause, the front-running pace shown by the #4 Camaro in Melbourne and Taupō has gone missing of late.

As a result, the 28-year-old hasn't been able to pull away from the Finals cut-line by more than 24 points at the conclusion of any round this year, and is just 14 points in the clear in ninth place after Darwin.

"The results weren’t what we hoped for, but we still banked important points towards making the Finals,” Hill said.

"We are ninth place in the points as we leave Darwin, but it is certainly heating up with a lot of drivers close to the top 10 cut-off.

"Everyone will be doing their homework for Townsville, with every race becoming more and more important."

Hill and MSR seemed to rediscover some of that speed to start the weekend before fading into the midfield for both of Saturday's sprint races.

However, a welcome Top Ten Shootout appearance on Sunday was rewarded by a solid run to ninth after a bold strategy play mirrored the undercut performed by Matt Payne and Penrite Racing.

"Our car felt really good on Friday as we ended up with 4th in Practice 1 and 20th in Practice 2 — we would have finished the second session higher, but we didn’t complete a green tyre run, so I wasn’t too stressed about the result,” he said.

"We had a tough morning on Saturday, qualifying further down the order than we felt we were capable of. We finished 12th in Race 17 and 13th in Race 18.

"On Sunday, we made the Top Ten Shootout for the fourth time this season, by qualifying ninth position. I felt confident that we had the speed to make it but it is never easy.

"As for the race itself, we rolled the dice by making an early pit stop, and we moved into an effective third place on the road. But our tyre life wasn’t good enough, so we dropped back as the late stoppers made up ground. We held on for a ninth place finish to get another top 10."

Finals Focus: Cameron Hill

Championship position after each round, gap to 10th

The 2025 Repco Supercars Championship continues at the NTI Townsville 500 from July 11-13. Tickets for the event are on sale now.