Brett Holdsworth has secured his second consecutive third place finish in the Trans Am Championship, ending the season with his third podium of 2023 in the final race at Mount Panorama.
The Breeze Holiday Parks driver battled back from a challenging first half of the year. A DNF at Phillip Island, being turned twice in three races at Winton and a puncture at Queensland Raceway all contributing to ninth place in the standings at the halfway point.
Sandown saw the first fightback, claiming a race two podium. Then in the final round of the year, Holdsworth came from ninth on the grid in race one, improving across the weekend to finish third in the season’s final outing. The Ashley Seward Motorsport prepared car came just one point shy of claiming a spot on the overall round podium, finishing fourth.
The result solidifies Holdsworth’s place as one of Trans Am’s most prominent drivers. Holdsworth is only the second driver to achieve multiple top three results in the Championship, and is the only driver from 2022 to retain a place inside the top five in the standings for 2023.
The Bathurst weekend started with a tricky pair of practice sessions for the #99 Camaro, prompting a myriad of changes which led to ninth in qualifying on Saturday morning. Holdsworth was boxed in at the start of race one by a slow car, dropping him to 12th. It was a strong race from there as Holdsworth fought his way back up to finish seventh.
Race two was declared a non-points race following a red flag, which left Holdsworth starting from seventh for the final race of the season. The experienced driver navigated a chaotic race, fighting his way up to finish in third place.
“Just really happy with how we fought back, and I had fun, which is why we do this,” said Holdsworth.
“The effort from Ashley Seward, he’s such a hard working person, has been invaluable and really allowed us to be ultra consistent. When we don’t get taken out, we’re generally always in that top five mix and that consistency is so important.
“This weekend, I was really pleased with how everyone stayed calm after a bit of a head scratching day of practice. With all the changes, it felt like I was driving a whole new car in qualifying, and from there it felt like we had the pace to go and run top three or four on merit, but it was a bit of a track position game as always.
“We’re probably the only single car team that is able to run well at every round. Not having that extra pool of data and information probably hurts us a little bit, but all the crew working on the car make up for it each and every round.
“It’s great to have the support from Frank Davies and Breeze Holiday Parks, as well as Site Traffic, Windcave, Gold Coast Service Centre, PriPark and TPS Group. We really can’t do this without our great supporters,” concluded Holdsworth.