Brett Holdsworth rallied to two top 10 finishes in a weekend where the Breeze Holiday Parks driver was taken out twice in three races, for round three of the Trans Am Series.
Entering the weekend Holdsworth was still batting the effects of his cycling accident from a couple of weeks prior, but immediately disparaged any concerns with the second fastest time in practice. The Queenslander struggled in qualifying however, with a lack of overall grip on his first run keeping Holdsworth outside the top 10. A strong improvement on a slowing track in his second run allowed the Ashley Seward Motorsport Camaro to vault back to 10th by the end of the session.
Holdsworth made a strong start to the opening race, moving up two spots to eighth by turn one. As luck would have it, the #99 got taken out just a few corners later after being tagged by the car behind. The incident cost Holdsworth upwards of 15 seconds and plummeted him to last in the running order.
A superb show of speed saw Holdsworth scythe his way back up the timing sheets across the 14-lap race to finish in 9th place. Amidst his charge Holdsworth set what would be the fastest race lap of the weekend, and subsequently a new race lap record for the category, by a comfortable three tenths of a second.
Despite the blistering pace in race one Holdsworth struggled with front locking and a lack of turn over the rest of the weekend, which set in motion two valiant defensive drives in race’s two and three. The Breeze Holiday Parks Camaro successfully fought off the advances of the chasing pack in race two, finishing in eighth position after being bumped from position seven early on.
The final race of the weekend was the highly anticipated 40-minute finale, and Holdsworth settled in to sixth position early on after again gaining spots on the opening lap. Another defensive drive looked set to secure a sixth-place finish, until a late Safety Car restart allowed the pack to close in and Holdsworth was taken out at the final corner with under five minutes to go.
The weekend, following on from a mechanical DNF at round two, leaves Holdsworth ninth in the standings.
Round four of the 2023 Trans Am Series will be contested from August 11-14 at Queensland Raceway as part of the Shannons SpeedSeries.
Quotes:
Brett Holdsworth
“We just really struggled to find pace as the weekend went on,” said Holdsworth.
“On Friday it looked like we were on for a front row start, and that clean air would have helped in the races. We missed the boat a bit for qualifying which set us back and then we got sent to last on the opening lap which basically ruined the rest of our weekend.
“Our race pace didn’t look to bad in that first race, when we had the clean air on the nose the car was pretty speedy, and that race lap record is a small consolation. Once we got stuck in the pack from race two onwards it just wouldn’t turn, and I was locking fronts everywhere.
“Even with all that I think we were still looking on for a solid bank of points to just get us back on track in the overall standings, and then we got unloaded for the second time this weekend. It’s the nature of the track, so hard to pass, and the fact we were probably fighting our way backwards after getting good starts and then sort of falling back to where we actually belonged pace wise.
“It’s a bit of a break until the next round, so I’ll take the time to refocus and just get back to peak fitness as well. Queensland Raceway will be a mega event for me, a big local round with friend and family and lots of eager employees who want to check out the race car – I can’t wait for it,” concluded Holdsworth.