Front-row start a big boost for Hill and MSR
By Thomas Miles
Date posted: 13 September 2025
Matt Stone Racing and Cameron Hill took Supercars by storm with victory at Albert Park, and despite struggling to match those heights since, they are back at The Bend.
With the #4 MSR Camaro again fast around a fast-flowing European-style track, Hill is back at the front of the field, having qualified on the front row for the AirTouch 500 at The Bend.
The Canberran was best of the rest behind the dominant Broc Feeney, being 0.1023s off pole in a thrilling Shootout.
It is his best qualifying since Albert Park and just the second top five grid position in that same period.
Since the breakthrough win Hill and MSR have been up and down with the #4 recording five top 10s in the 16 races since.
This has pushed Hill 108 below the Finals cut line, making it make or break time in the enduros with youngster Cam McLeod and so far he has delivered.
“It is a big shot in the arm and comes at an important time for us,” Hill said.
“These next two races are vital for our Finals hopes because we are just outside of the bubble.
“The last couple of rounds were frustrating. We lost points to our nearest rivals and it has not been much.
“A tenth sometimes is the difference between having a good day and bad day.
“We never really lost hope, we just kept plucking away and circled this as a round to get back to the front.
“We always say this championship is dependent on qualifying, and a front row start sets us up for the race.”
Following the success at Albert Park and the similar style of sweeping corners at The Bend, Hill revealed MSR employed a similar set-up to that magical weekend.
“This track is similar to Albert Park, so we looked at why we were good there and tried to take a similar philosophy,” he said.
“But at the same time I was really, really struggling in that last practice and did not have a representative lap time until 10 minutes to go, and I would never of thought we would make the front row.
“But we made small adjustments, and sometimes it is all about small changes, so we just tried to go through the process methodically.”
Now in just his third Supercars race, youngster McLeod faces the prospect of likely starting alongside Jamie Whincup when the lights go out tomorrow.
“Never really thought I would share a front row of Jamie, which is really cool,” he said.
“Obviously, whoever starts it is my job to get off the line well, do my best into Turn 1 and give Cam the car in relatively good shape and he should be right from there.”
Image: Peter Norton Epic Sports Photography
Practice 1: 1: A. Cameron/Z. Best 1:50.0617 2: T. Randle/Z. Best +0.0283 3: B. Kostecki/T. Hazelwood +0.3358
Practice 2: 1: Jamie Whincup 1:50.5875 2: Todd Hazelwood +0.2082 3: Dale Wood +0.3248
Practice 3: 1: Will Brown 1:48.9957 2: Broc Feeney +0.3210 3: Thomas Randle +0.3837
Practice 4: 1 James Moffat 1:50.7387 2 Lee Holdsworth +0.1864 3 Rylan Gray +0.2128
Practice 5: 1 Ryan Wood 1:49.2867 2 Brodie Kostecki +0.0272 3 Broc Feeney +0.0584
Qualifying: 1 Brodie Kostecki 1:49.3947 2 Broc Feeney +0.0081 3 Cameron Waters +0.0628
Top 10 Shootout: 1 Broc Feeney 1:48.6548 2 Cameron Hill +0.1023 3 Brodie Kostecki +0.1286
Warm Up: Sunday 9.30-9.50
Race 26: Sunday 13.45-17.18 102 laps
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