It also did not stop him from winning.

Last year Muston sat on pole for the final race of the NSW Production Sports Cars series’ Bathurst round and he got off the line well.

But after leading through the early laps he had a big crash up the top of Mount Panorama. The experienced driver was lucky to walk away from the incident, but his Porsche sustained massive damage.

On Saturday morning as Muston sat on position two on the grid waiting for the start of the driver A race, he was more excited than nervous about his Easter racing return.

By the time he claimed the chequered flag he was even more excited as he got his new Porsche 997 GT3 Cup Car through unscathed.

“There were a few little butterflies, but I did race here earlier this year in the Radical [Australia] Cup and we went a lot quicker than this, so really no nerves. I guess that was just a learning experience,” he said.

“It was my first outing in the new car, so it was nice to see it deliver. I had a very short practice session at Eastern Creek a couple of weeks ago, but basically we hadn’t set up. I guess there is nothing like a fast race to set it up right.”

It was two-time Bathurst 12 Hour champion Rod Salmon who started on pole on Saturday morning and was looking for another Mount Panorama success, but he was unable to get his Audi R8 off the line cleanly.

It allowed Muston to come from position two to take the lead, with fellow Porsche driver Duvashen Padayachee following him up the Mount. Ash Samadi snuck through from position five to take third, with Salmon slotting in behind him.

Those opening moments of the race were to prove telling. What shaped as a good battle at the head of the field was put on hold as the Lotus Exige of John Prefontaine came to grief on the opening lap.

The Queenslander dropped his back tyre over the ripple strip at Skyline and he ended up in the wall.

Fellow Queenslander Keith Kassulke also struck trouble as he spun his Ascari KZIR GT3, but the rest of the field did well to avoid contact with that duo as they quickly jumped on the brakes.

The yellow flag conditions lasted two-and-a-half laps, leaving what was initially thought to be seven laps for the field to battle it out when racing resumed.

It actually ended up being five laps.

Muston held onto his lead when the green flag came out, but Padayachee had him under plenty of pressure. Behind that battling duo, Salmon got past Samadi’s Porsche GT3 Cup Car into third.

Salmon trailed the two leaders by two seconds at the end of that fourth lap, but that margin quickly dropped.

His Audi lapped faster than the two leaders on their sixth and seventh trips around the mount. He was baulked by a lapped car as he continued his pursuit, but it was to last just one more lap.

The chequered flag came out after eight laps, with Muston holding on to win by 0.2155 seconds over Padayachee with Salmon third.

“I thought we had a couple more laps there, but I was actually treating every lap like it was the last one, given we had a bit of time out there with the safety car,” Muston said.

“I got a great start, I absolutely flew off the line. My rear tyres felt so sticky and it was actually a bit of a shame the safety car came out because I had a bit of a gap on them.

“If that Audi had of got in front there would have been no getting back past him, but it is reasonably slow to start. They do rolling starts in GT racing, so they are difficult to get off the line.

“Duvash, who came second, he is in the latest spec cup car with the paddles. I am actually going to partner him at Carrera Cup for a pro-am down at Phillip Island next month, so that was great for us to have a bit of a battle.

“Coming into The Chase we had to cover our lines a bit and did what we had to do, but we were quicker over the top.”