HE wasn't able to claim a Bathurst podium when he raced at Mount Panorama in February, so when John Steffensen claimed the chequered flag at the track on Monday night he was delighted.
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The Athens Olympic Games silver medallist turned race driver was part of the 24-strong grid for the Supercars celebrity Eseries event held at Mount Panorama.
With former Bathurst 1000 winner, Erebus star David Reynolds, acting as his spotter while he sat in the simulator, Steffensen took out the opening nine-lap race.
He was on track to make it a winning double as he surged from the rear in the second reverse-grid format race to be second with a lap to go.
However, he was too eager on the throttle out of Hell Corner. Steffensen crashed and had to settle for fifth.
Still, there is little doubt that Steffensen enjoyed the event.
"Even though it's not the real thing it's been a hell of a lot of enjoyable," he said.
"He [Reynolds] is absolutely the best spotter because all we do is laugh the whole way round, I think he keeps me relaxed. Hey when can you say you have a Bathurst champion telling you how to drive around Bathurst?"
Steffensen did actual race laps of Mount Panorama earlier this year in the Aussie Racing Cars series which acted as a Bathurst 12 Hour support category.
He was 15th outright for the round and clocked a best lap time of 2:38.7374. Steffensen said that experience helped "to a certain extent, knowing the track and knowing where the bumps are".
Steffesen was the fourth fastest in qualifying with a 2:05.338 lap, but it was Australian Supercross star Dan Reardon who claimed pole position with a 2:03.949.
Reardon looked as if he would go lights to flag as he made a brilliant start and quickly built an advantage over his rivals.
But on lap seven when trying to pass lapped rivals, Reardon was clipped by Carl Cox exiting Hell Corner and dropped to fifth.
That gifted Steffesen the lead and he went on to win by 10.885 seconds.
"The seas parted for me, Reardo went super-dooper quick and the seas parted for me there," Steffensen laughed.
Second belonged to Chad Reed, while Reardon recovered to snatch third.
"That was awesome, it's 5.48am here ... but it's worth staying up all night for that," Reed said.
Race two saw a reverse grid format and as expected, it led to a host of crashes. Steffensen was amongst those who struck trouble at Hell Corner.
It saw a safety car deployed, with pole sitter Scott Pedder leading at that stage.
When the race was restarted Pedder pulled out to lead by 3.3 seconds, but behind him Steffensen was on the charge.
With two laps to go Steffensen had improved to second and was rapidly closing in on 2014 Australian Rally Championship winner Pedder.
But Steffensen pushed too hard and made a mistake, leaving Pedder to go on and win by 7.5 seconds over Blake Williams and Brad Hodge.
"I was getting worried about John Steffensen, he was going pretty hard but then he got around that first turn there and spun, so very relaxed lap after that," Pedder said.
