Matt Campbell is working towards a Supercars return after confirming that talks are underway for him to drive a Triple Eight V6 twin-turbo Commodore wildcard at this year’s Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000.
Triple Eight announced last year that it intends to run a series of wildcard entries for a V6 twin-turbo powered Commodore ahead of the engine’s full championship debut in 2019.
The 22-year-old has emerged as a candidate for the drive having been forced to forgo the full Pirtek Enduro Cup season due to his Porsche commitments, which will include a run at the Nurburgring 24 Hours in May.
This year the Australian rising star has been promoted to a Porsche Young Professional driver after an impressive debut season in the one-make Porsche Supercup.
Campbell is well thought of by Triple Eight having driven alongside Shane van Gisbergen in the 2017 enduros, which has led to positive talks with Triple Eight boss Roland Dane regarding the wildcard drive.
“I was only talking to Roland again last week, talked a bit further about it but there’s so much to organise and deal with in that time. That’s still I think the plan,” said Campbell at the Bathurst 12 Hour, where he finished fourth driving for Competition Motorsports.
“We’re still working towards it. There’s no date clash or anything like that but he has to work for a lot more, obviously confirm the other drivers and everything like that, but everything’s looking positive.
“But I’m not saying yes or no because a lot can change in that time because it’s so far away.
“Something could crop up with Porsche or maybe that program is all done quite late with everything, but I’m sure it will happen for him, no doubt about that, but we just have to keep working together and chipping away about that.
“But obviously we’ve talked about it a lot.”
Campbell is keen to make a trip back from Europe to contest Supercars’ showpiece race in October.
“My focus and time is spent with Porsche and that’s where I want to be and that’s what I want to do,” he added.
“I don’t want to spend too much time in Australia doing other things like that, but if I can do something like hopefully the 1000, that’s great.
“It’s a massive event, it’s a home race and something I love doing. I’ve done it for the last couple of years.
“Obviously the three races this year weren’t possible with date clashes, but I would like to come back as a wildcard especially I think that would be a great opportunity.”
While Campbell’s full 2018 program is yet to be revealed, he has hinted that a Nurburgring 24 Hours drive will be dovetailed with several other ‘exciting’ outings.
Porsche is likely to farm Campbell out to a range of its customer GT teams throughout the year.
“At the moment that’s the only one that’s been announced. I can’t say anything further regarding the other programs but I can say it’s looking very, very exciting and happy with what I’e been given,” he said.
“So I can’t wait for that. Not too sure when that will be released, but I presume soon, and obviously the cars I’ll be in too which I’m really looking forward to.”
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