Winning on a budget

Cameron Hill, 18, is on the verge of clinching the Australian Formula Ford title, in a car that is maintained by him and his father, Colin, in a workshop in the industrial area.

Eight points from the final three races at Wakefield Park in Goulburn this November, will be enough for Hill to claim the series win, which has been a key stepping stone for many drivers in the past.

Previous winners include V8 Supercar drivers Craig Lowndes, Will Davison and Jamie Whincup.

Cameron's record this year is impressive with nine wins from 15 starts so far, but the fact he has left other teams far behind, many of whom have much larger budgets, is a real achievement for his family operated endeavour.

"It's hard work but it's rewarding knowing that you've done it yourself. You look at all the other big teams with their money and say 'we can do it from our little garage in Queanbeyan'," he said.

Colin Hill owns the garage, and is a fitter and turner by trade. However, these days he does fabricating work, which is great for his and Cameron's passion - Motorsport.

"Dad has his own business and he invested in this little workshop in Queanbeyan," Cameron said.

"He does a lot of work for schools, repairing their woodwork and metalwork equipment... But he does a bit of anything and everything out of this workshop."

His father's resourcefulness, and Cameron's work ethic, have helped them to create an effective environment to work on the car, not to mention a competitive package.

"He's got every machine you could want, if you wanted to have a good metal fabricating workshop. It's just a good platform to have when you're working on a race car because we've got all the machines and everything necessary to do everything in house," Cameron said.

"Instead of having to buy stands for the race car we just make them. Throw some bits of metal together, weld them together and there you go."

This setup has given Cameron another advantage that racers the world over struggle with.

"We do it on maybe a third of the budget of someone who goes to a team to pay for their drive," he said.

Cameron said a lot of young drivers have their careers blocked by financial difficulties, and that for the moment he was glad that his workshop allowed him to keep racing competitively.

"There are a lot of stories out there of kids who should've been," he said.

"We're doing a lot of networking right now to try and build a platform. Even if you don't get a half a million dollar sponsorship, anyone who wants to get on board and help, it adds up."

However, Cameron said doing all the work on the car himself has its downsides.

"When you're working on the car as a driver you're like 'is it me? is it the car?' and you're doing a lot of second guessing," he said.

"The most rewarding thing is going to drive the car, but if you don't do it [the work], you can't go race driving."

But Cameron said putting in the time to build his racing career was a necessary step to achieving his dreams of being a professional driver.

"You have to do it all yourself. You can't just rock up to the race track having done nothing and expect to go well. You have to be at the workshop and spend a week on it before a race," he said.

"You've got to get your hands dirty. You can't just be all glamour and rock up with your sunglasses."

Cameron said that he wouldn't be forging ahead so strongly without the support of his family and friends.

"At the workshop it's just Dad and I. When we go to the race meetings, my uncle is really keen on it, so he always comes to the race meetings, and it's good to have an extra pair of hands.

"When I race in Sydney all my motorsport friends will come out and they just want to get stuck into it and work on race cars.

"Mum and my sister come along.

"It's a big family affair."