Brett Holdsworth has overcome a poor grid position and a wild weekend of action to charge his way to a top five result by the final race of the Phillip Island Trans Am round.
Holdsworth was forced to start from eighth after qualifying was cancelled due to incident, and the grid determined by combined practice times. The Breeze Holiday Parks sponsored driver was then able to gain a spot in each race, moving up to seventh in race one, sixth in race two and fifth in race three.
In both races one and two, Holdsworth had to overcome a poor start after getting caught in awkward spots on the opening laps as drivers jockeyed aggressively for position. However, he was able to keep his nose clean through the event amid the battling, ensuring the Breeze Holiday Parks Camaro ended the race meeting in one piece.
The #99 was the only Chevrolet Camaro-bodied Trans-Am car to finish in a top 10 otherwise filled with Ford Mustangs in the final race of the weekend.
“It was a really awesome weekend fighting with everyone and I had some good battles out there, a few heated moments but that’s par for the course in Trans Am,” said Holdsworth.
“I’m happy but we just don’t have quite have the outright speed of the front runners; we need to sort that out because at the moment we’re not going to compete for anything better than fourth. We have to find where we’re losing grip and do the hard yards to figure that out.”
At one stage, Holdsworth was involved in a close skirmish with Ben Grice, but said there was no malice intended in any on-track altercation.
“Apologies to Gricey (Ben Grice) if I fed him wide, he was just in my blind spot and he’s the last person I want to push off the track, we normally get along really well,” Holdsworth said.
Holdsworth finishes the round in sixth place and is also sixth in the series points, 43 points behind leader Nathan Herne.
The next Trans-Am round will be held at Mount Panorama, 15-17 April.
Weekend Results:
Qualifying – 8th
Race 1 – 7th
Race 2 – 6th
Race 3 – 5th
Championship Points:
1. Nathan Herne – 356
2. Tim Brook – 349
3. Owen Kelly – 322
4. Kyle Gurton – 322
5. Lochie Dalton – 322
6. Brett Holdsworth – 313
7. Edan Thornburrow – 285
8. Dalton Ellery – 276
9. Jon McCorckindale – 271
10. Chris Pappas – 269