IT didn’t start out as a promising Combined Sedans campaign for Bathurst’s Stuart Inwood at Mount Panorama but on Saturday it ended on a high.
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Race start dramas and an electrical fault led to a forgettable opening race for Inwood on Friday, where he failed to finish, but he had a much more enjoyable time on his home track the following day.
With a kill switch wiring issue under control Inwood was able to make his Saturday charge.
Inwood worked his way through the field in race two to finish 11th and jumped up to seventh by the end of the third and final race.
He might not have reached his top goal for the third race but he was pleased with the way he worked through the field in the final event.
“It was a good day. I got stuck behind a couple of cars early but I managed to run them down, kept the pressure on, they made mistakes and I made places,” he said.
“It was a good result. We were aiming for top five at the absolute best but we’re more than happy with seventh. It was a good comeback by the car. There were no problems with it and hopefully it keeps it up for the rest of the year.
“The tyres went off a bit on lap seven so went for a bit more bar, looked after them and it came together.”
While the Corvette handled the conditions well, the hot day pushed Inwood himself to the limit.
“We’re going to have to work on some better ventilation. It was about 200 degrees in there. It felt like the car was on fire on my legs so we’ll put a bit of heat insulation and some more outside ducting on,” he said.
“Even though it’s hot outside it’s got to be better than that. It’s an oven in there. Could cook a chook in five minutes.”
The massive rally up the grid from 44th to 11th in race two was a strong effort from Inwood.
The Bathurst driver ran into much stronger competition in race three but still managed to work his way up four more spots.
Inwood hasn’t decided yet whether to contest the NSW or National Combined Sedans Championship over the 2017 season.
“We may even have a year off and have a bit of catch up from all our problems last year,” he said.
“I’d say we will at least end up doing state though.”
Bryce Fullwood was dominant over the weekend. The Holden VE Commodore driver won all three races.
Josh Smith improved one spot to finish runner-up in the final race while the final spot on the podium was taken out Terry Wyhoon.
Race two runner-up Tony Evangelou slipped back down to finish fourth in the final race.
