Cameron McConville

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Cameron McConville signing autographs at the 2006 Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park in Melbourne, Australia.

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 Supercheap Auto Racing.

1 Early years
2 V8 Supercar Career
3 V8 Supercar statistics
4 External links

[edit] Early years

McConville spent his early childhood in the United States before returning to suburban Melbourne, Australia where he began his motor racing career at the age of eight. His first experience was 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 he 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 team 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.

[edit] V8 Supercar Career

An impressive part time drive in the 1999 V8 supercar championship saw the Holden Racing Team offer McConville 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 McConville 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. McConville was also the outright winner of the Bathurst 24 hour race in 2002 in a Holden Monaro.

In 2006, McConville switched teams again, this time to Kees and Paul Weel's Supercheap Auto Racing.

He has experienced a challenging season so far sitting in 24th position in the 2006 Championship, things were looking up 2/3 of the way through the Bathurst 1000 but then McConville slid on some oil left by another car on the road, crashing into the wall just after Skyline on Mt Panorama. This ended the day for the team with too much damage done to the car to continue.

McConville was able to achieve his best result all year in scoring 227 points for the weekend at the Gold Coast however this was not without problems.

[edit] 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

[edit] External links

Teams contesting the 2006 V8 Supercar Championship Series
Stone Brothers Racing	Holden Racing Team	Tasman Motorsport	Ford Performance Racing	Jack Daniel's Racing	WPS Racing
1 Russell Ingall 4 James Courtney	2 Mark Skaife 22 Todd Kelly	3 Jason Richards 23 Andrew Jones	5 Mark Winterbottom 6 Jason Bright	7 Steven Richards 11 Paul Dumbrell	8 Max Wilson 10 Jason Bargwanna
Team BOC	Toll HSV Dealer Team	Dick Johnson Racing	Paul Cruickshank Racing	Fujitsu Racing	Garry Rogers Motorsport
12 John Bowe 14 Brad Jones	15 Rick Kelly 16 Garth Tander	17 Steven Johnson 18 Will Davison	20 Marcus Marshall	25 Warren Luff 26 Jose Fernandez	33 Lee Holdsworth 34 Dean Canto
Team Sirromet Wines	Supercheap Auto Racing	Autobarn Racing	Team Betta Electrical	Team Kiwi Racing
39 Alan Gurr 39 Fabian Coulthard 67 Paul Morris	50 Cameron McConville 51 Greg Murphy	55 Steve Owen	88 Jamie Whincup 888 Craig Lowndes	021 Paul Radisich