Matt Woodward, Harrison Field and John Markwick are all on the hunt for their first Excel podium this year, with all three drivers coming close to achieving that goal during February's opening round of the NSW series at Wakefield Park.

Field will be looking to build upon his pair of fourth placings at Wakefield and comes into his home event excited to completed his first full laps of the Mount.

"I started doing a bit of dirt racing with the Bathurst Light Car Club, then when I was 15 started getting in the circuit stuff. Then last year I started the Excel series and finished seventh," he said.

"It was a great opening for me and it feels good to start the season on a high. It would be good to get that first podium.

"I've done a couple of Hill Climbs at the Mount but never a full lap. I did manage to get an Australian record on the Mountain Straight Hill Climb driving an open-wheeler clubman."

Woodward managed to get himself inside the top 10 during the opening race of the first round but will be hoping to take the next step upon his Bathurst adventure.

He ended up fourth in the 2020 series and now, behind the wheel of a new car, he's keen to find success on his home track.

"This will be my first race at Bathurst even though I've lived here for 35 years," he said.

"This year I've gone and bought my own car and done all the maintenance and mechanical work on the car setup. I've had a couple of mates come on board to help me, and hopefully we can get onto that podium at some point.

"Our first meet at Wakefield Park we were a bit slower and had a couple of issues with the car but hopefully we've rectified those for this weekend.

"I'm enjoying doing the work on the car myself and learning a lot too. We'll see what this weekend brings. There's a lot of cars on the grid so it's going to be pretty intense."

Markwick comes to Mount Panorama with a pair of sixth placings to his name at the Wakefield round.

But despite a great start to his NSW series he's just hoping to be competitive against the huge field at Bathurst.

"It can be hard to get a drive around the Mount unless you've got a budget but the Hyundai series has given more people the opportunity to get a run," he said.

"I did the Mount in 2018 with the Excel Series and I've done a couple of the Challenge Bathurst regularity events in a Pulsar and one in the Excel, but this one here is a new build.

"Last time it was on the track it went really well so hopefully we'll be out there mixing it with some the guys. I'm not sure about being up the front though."

Saturday will be the business end of the Excel event for the Bathurst drivers with races two and three taking place at 7.05am and 11.20am respectively.

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