HE was a little nervous about how his new Hyundai Excel would perform, but by the time Bathurst driver Matt Woodward left Wakefield Park last weekend those nerves were gone.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The car he purchased and worked on himself performed well in both qualifying and the two one-hour races the Series X3 NSW category staged at the track.
Though Woodward had some misfortune in pit lane and on track, he still came home with his quickest ever qualifying lap around Wakefield in the series for Hyundai Excels, clocking a 1:14:96.
"I raced in this last year as a rookie and ended up eighth in the series overall. This year I chased around, got a few big sponsors and got a bit of money behind me because I was actually leasing a car through Brett McFarland," he said.
"But now I've brought my own car and am doing all the work myself.
"It was the first time I'd driven in my own car on the weekend and I ended up with fourth place in qualifying with the quickest time I'd ever put down at Wakefield, so I was pretty stoked to do that in my first drive of it."
Though going from position four in the first race on Saturday afternoon, a combination of incidents involving other drivers and a 'brain fart' saw Woodward place 22nd.
On Sunday morning he narrowly missed a spot in the top 10 shootout then the Woodduck Motorsport entry ran as high as fifth in the one-hour race before placing seventh.
"I know they says it's rubs racing, but this was a bit further on from rubs racing - I got t-boned a couple of times in that first race, but I was in the top 10 still," Woodward said.
"But there's a compulsory pit stop as well and I made a bit of a brain fart in that stop. You've got to close the driver's door and because I didn't do that, they gave me a three-lap penalty which put me down to 22nd.
"On Sunday only just missed out on the shootout, from eighth to 13th there was one tenth and I qualified 11th.
"I moved up from 11th to seventh [in the race] and I had another issue in pit lane, a car held me up and I lost two positions, so I would've been fifth.
"But over the weekend I'm pretty pumped with the way the car went."
Woodward was not the only Bathurst driver who competed in the series with John Markwick, Steve Muggleton, Nathan Goulding, Brett and Philip McFarland also racing.
Woodward wished to thanks sponsors Ned Whisky Australia; Spray FX; Alpha Signs; Nathan Baldi Homes; Evan Deveney Painting and Decorating; Bent Threads Menswear; Lectrix Group; Phones 4 Business; and Fenixit for their support.