CAMERON McLeod is very much following in the footsteps of Kai Allen with how his Dunlop Super3 campaign is playing out.
Unless something well out of the ordinary happens, McLeod will not be winning the 2023 Super3 crown.
That’s despite – no disrespect to points leader Jobe Stewart, who has impressed in an Image Racing VF Commodore – him having been the class of the field aboard his #92 Nissan Altima.
McLeod has taken nine of 10 poles this year and won six races, but an unfortunate double DNF at Sandown effectively took him out of contention.
At 279 points adrift, the 18-year-old can only win the title if Stewart endures a double DNF later this month in Adelaide, and he would probably need second-placed Jett Johnson to not finish one race as well.
“It’s disappointing how the year has played out,” McLeod told V8 Sleuth.
“I think the pace of the car and the pace of me has been quite good, but it’s just first-year things, making a bit of mistakes on my behalf, a bit of mistakes on the team’s behalf.
“We’re still chipping away at it and although the points (situation) doesn’t show our pace, I think a bit of the TV time does, so that’s a bit of a positive way of taking out of it.”
It’s rather reminiscent of Allen, who ceded the 2022 Super3 title to Brad Vaughan after crashing out in Adelaide – but that hasn’t stopped him from going on to bigger and better things this year, namely a Super2 championship challenge and a Bathurst 1000 debut.
“That’s why we’re not too bummed out about it,” McLeod continued.
“But obviously there’s a really low chance of us winning the championship now. All we can do is just keep pushing as hard as we can; there’s kind of nothing to lose, really.”
McLeod did enjoy a superb October, taking both Super3 class wins at Bathurst and sweeping the National Sports Sedans round on the Gold Coast.
He’ll look to keep that form rolling as he returns to Mount Panorama for this weekend’s Bathurst International, in which he’ll make his Kumho Tyre V8 Touring Car Series debut.
McLeod will be driving an ex-Shane van Gisbergen/Stone Brothers Racing FG Falcon against the likes of Ryan Simpson and Jude Bargwanna, with three races to be held.
From there, it’s onto Adelaide for the November 23-26 Super2 season closer.
V8 Sleuth’s ongoing coverage of the Dunlop Series for Super2 and Super3 is proudly presented by Biante – Fuel your passion with winning model cars. Visit Biante here to check out their range of model cars in a range of scales from 1:64 to 1:10.
