In placing fourth of the Super3 entries on Saturday afternoon in the second of two combined Super2-Super3 series races at Mount Panorama, Anderson ensured his return season was one to remember.

He finished runner-up to Nash Morris in the outright 2021 Super3 title and was crowned victor of the Super3 Cup (for part-time drivers) category.

"It's unreal. Coming back into it we always had good speed, winning here at Bathurst, winning at Sydney, Townsville, we won at every track ... so to finish runner-up and claim the championship in the cup too is good," he said.

"It's what we came here to do."

The last time Anderson raced in the series was in 2018 when he placed sixth.

Though Anderson Motorsport picked up second the following year when Jayden Ojeda was runner-up to Broc Feeney, season 2021 has been Anderson's personal best as a driver.

It meant that even though one of the big factors which lured him back behind the wheel - that chance to race on the Gold Coast - did not eventuate due to COVID-19 forced calendar changes, the season was certainly one to remember.

"I wanted to finish at Gold Coast, I love the Gold Coast track and that's what we were supposed to do, go to the Gold Coast and have the gala night after it. When I saw that I thought 'Perfect, we'll have the Gold Coast and two Bathursts, plus Townsville'. It would've been so good to do, but anyway COVID came," he said.

"But I've got a lot of friends, family all here at the track and to come second to Nash, he's done a lot of racing during COVID in Queensland. He's raced SuperTrucks, the TA2s, Excels while we were in lockdown in New South Wales and track time is everything."

Anderson had led the series until the final race of the third round - the Townsville SuperSprint - when a Super2 entry made contact with his Ford Falcon, bent his steering and saw him unable to finish.

Had that not happened he would have had a closer fight with Morris, who sealed the outright championship on Friday at Mount Panorama. But bad luck also played a role in seeing Anderson finish as runner-up.

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Reef McCarthy had headed into the Bathurst round ahead of Anderson on the standings, but encountered a mechanical issue in Friday's race and was unable to finish.

"It's just sort of how it works out, he had some bad luck like us at Townsville. It was though just really a shame what happened to us at Townsville when that Super2 car hit us and bent the steering, because we would've really been in the title contention overall," Anderson said.

That first race on Friday saw Anderson forced to adopt a conservative approach in the concluding laps due to a badly flat-spotted tyre.

"One of the cars in front dropped oil, so I went into the last turn, hit the brakes, couldn't see nothing, but I just started sliding," he said.

"I was sliding out, still thought we were going to catch it and then the front left was still in the oil and the front right wasn't, so it just grabbed and flat-spotted. We kept on, but from that point we had a bad vibration in the front.

"I asked at that stage how many laps to go, hoping there would be two or three, as I could just go flat out, but they said over the radio eight, which was a long way. Then I saw Reef pull up and in terms of championship points that was pretty big, so I needed to make sure I finished.

"So I just basically conservatively drove the car to make sure I finished. The car was good, I just couldn't get a clean run."

In placing fourth of the Super3 entries in that race, it meant all Anderson had to do to seal a 2021 podium double on Saturday afternoon was to finish.

He made sure he did exactly that.

There was drama off the start line when Super2 team-mates Ojeda and Tyler Everingham connected, triggering a safety car, but Anderson avoided the drama and climbed from 18^th to 16^th.

Two more safety car periods followed and the race actually finished under a yellow flag, but as Anderson crossed the line 15th outright and fourth in Super3 it was time for him to celebrate.

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