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Aaron Cameron gets first taste of S5000 power
HE’S firmly committed to his Supercheap Auto TCR Australia campaign, but don’t rule out Aaron Cameron from an S5000 cameo in the future.
That’s the word from the man himself after he sampled one of Garry Rogers Motorsports S5000 entries at a Winton test day earlier this week.
Cameron has been a star of the TCR Series this year and currently sits fifth in the championship, just 25 points behind second-placed Luke King, heading into the final round at Mount Panorama.
Though switching to open wheelers is not in his short-term plans, Cameron jumped at the opportunity to sample one of the 560hp Rogers AF01/V8 chassis during GRM’s shakedown test earlier this week.
“It was unreal, off tap! It’s got so much power compared to TCR car,” he said.
“And it was a lot more physical than I was expecting. There’s a lot more bumps at this Winton circuit that I didn’t know where there. The braking performance these cars have is incredible but the power is just fricking awesome.”
Cameron is one of several drivers to have sampled an S5000 racer for the first time in the last week: Ben Bargwanna – who will race in the opening round of the upcoming Tasman Series – plus Super2 racers Josh Fife and Matt Chahda also getting their first laps aboard GRM machinery.
Though his recent background is in TCR racing, driving a Peugeot for Garry Rogers Motorsport, Cameron’s background includes open-wheel racing in Formula Ford junior competition.
He said jumping back into a car, sans roof, brought back memories from his open-wheel days.
“It was quite different going back to the Formula Ford days. You forget how much air comes through the visor and the air was trying to rip my helmet off the whole time! It was a battle with my neck to hold it all together.”
While he doesn’t plan to race one soon, the 21-year-old Melbournian won’t rule out future racing appearances.
“I was getting a feel for what the car has to offer and aero wise I didn’t want to be the one to put the car in the weeds,” Cameron said of his S5000 taste-test.
“It was good though hopefully in the future we get a few more runs and get a feel for what the aero has to offer.
“If the opportunity arose and all the schedules fit in it would certainly be a cool car to race and I’ve been watching all year. They’re seriously cool bits of kit and to get a quick steer in one is awesome, so we’ll see what I can organise with GRM and see if we can make it happen.”
The S5000 Tasman Series kicks off at Sydney Motorsport Park on November 19-21 with the first three races of the seven-race stretch, before concluding at Mount Panorama, Bathurst, between November 30 and December 5 at the Bathurst 1000.