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At the VAILO Adelaide 500 Aaron Cameron delivered to Garry Rogers Motorsport something the team had been striving for – the Australian Drivers’ Championship, also known as the Motorsport Australia Gold Star.
“We went into the round confident we could do it, just had to make sure we had more than 60 points going into the final race,” he said.
“It is great to put my name on the trophy. Also, to get the Tasman Cup again, I won it two years ago and Nathan [Herne] won it last year.
“It was made a little easier for us by Cooper [Webster] missing a round and having his problems, and Joey [Mawson] out earlier. Team BRM won the last two years and GRM put a lot into winning this one.”
Cameron also raced in Supercheap Auto TCR Australia and took in the last three rounds of the Dunlop Super 2 Series. Both those categories are on the radar for season 2024.
It was a dominant performance in S5000 from Cameron and his Valvoline/GRM teammate Jordan Boys as they qualified one-two and finished first and second in each of the three races.
In Race 1 they were comfortably ahead of Versa Motorsport’s Blake Purdie before they headed Hangcha Racing’s Ben Bargwanna in an interrupted Race 2. Cameron was in an unbeatable position going into Race 3 and while he and Boys were again ahead of Bargwanna, it was another that had Safety Cars.
The dominance by Cameron was complete, and he finished the championship with 616 points. A bonus for GRM was Boys on 458 as he secured second ahead of Webster and Mawson.
Cameron’s end-of-season performance in TCR when the World Tour arrived in Australia for two rounds was noteworthy. “The jumped start and then the hit that put me off in Sydney hurt. Then we went to Bathurst to give it all we had, but the engine went in the last race,” he said.
His first races in the Super 2 Ford Mustang took time. “For so long as a left foot braker, changing over to right foot braking and heel-to-toe just felt foreign. Doing double duties isn’t something I wanted to do.”
The first couple of races were basically to get in the groove. “Adelaide I felt were fast. Aaron Love and I were coming through the field there in Race 2. He was a little quicker, but I kept it clean and only had one small scrap on a wall.”
The future of S5000 and where the Gold Star will reside next year is unknown. “I’ll be going for a TCR title next year. I have had a second, a third and a fourth, just want to win it now. I will also be involved in the GRM Combines at Winton where we have young up and coming drivers to help them along.
“I would love to do the full Super 2 series next year, but that will be a matter of finding the finance and putting everything in place to make it happen.”
