Cameron McConville
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Cameron McConville (b. Melbourne, 22 January, 1974) is an Australian V8 Supercar racing driver.
McConville is currently active in the V8 Supercar championship. In 2005 he was the lead driver of the Garry Rogers Motorsport team based in Glen Waverley, Melbourne. In 2006, he has switched to replace Paul Weel at Super Cheap Auto Racing.
Early years.
Cameron started his motor racing career at the age of eight racing go-karts in first local then national championships, culminating in several Victorian titles. At the age of fifteen, he became the youngest ever holder of a CAMS racing licence with a brief foray into Formula Vee racing before moving onto the highly competitive Formula Ford racing category in 1991. In 1992 was chosen to be the 'works' Van Diemen driver and he won the prestigious 'Driver to Europe' national title beating future champions such as Craig Lowndes and Steven Richards. This victory (he was the youngest ever winner of the series) drew national attention and a testing role at Dick Johnson racing as well as a stint at the Bathurst 1000 in a Ford Sierra. A solid performance meant he was invited back to the Dick Johnson racing outfit for 1993 where he paired with Paul Radisich in the second team car. Unfortunately, whilst in third position, and gaining on the leaders, he crashed heavily at the infamous 'skyline' bend. This proved to be costly to his stellar rise. After several years of driving for lesser teams his persistence finally paid off when he teamed up with prominent businessman Tom Warwick to drive a Porsche RSCS in the Australian GTP championship during the 1996 season. He won the series in the last race of the year beating championship favourite Jim Richards. In 1997 he was chosen to replace Greg Murphy as the Audi Australia 'works' driver (largely due to his success the previous year) where he finished third in the championship. In 1998 he was narrowly beaten to the championship by team owner Brad Jones in somewhat controversial circumstances.V8 Supercar Career.
An impressive part time drive in the 1999 V8 supercar championship saw the Holden Racing Team offer Cameron an endurance co-drive, pairing up with the then championship leader Craig Lowndes. Together they finished in second place at the Bathurst 1000 race. This performance earned him a full time contract with the newly-founded Rod Nash racing for 2000. In 2001 he moved to the Sydney-based Lansvale racing team where he continued to impress in under-funded, less-developed machinery. He remained with the team until he was offered a contract with the Garry Rogers Motorsport outfit in 2004. The move to the Garry Rogers team has proved to be fruitful for Cameron when he took his first championship race win at Winton raceway in 2004.In 2005 he took on team leader status with the departure of Garth Tander to the HSV dealer team. Cameron was also the outright winner of the Bathurst 24hr race in 2002 in a Holden Monaro.
In 2006, McConville switched teams again, this time to Kees and Paul Weel's Super Cheap Auto Racing.
V8 Supercar statistics:
- Starts: 173 (As of start 2005)
- Wins: 1 (Winton, 2004)
- Podiums: 4
- 1 x 1st Winton, 2004
- 1 x 2nd Bathurst 1000, 1999 (with Craig Lowndes)
- 2 x 3rd Sandown 500, 1998; Queensland 500, 1999
- Pole Positions: 0
- Fastest Laps: 0
External links
- [Garry Rogers Motorsport web site]
- [Holden Motorsport web site]
- [Super Cheap Auto Racing] [Cameron McConville page]
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