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Brett Holdsworth buoyant following opening round gains
It was a matter of playing catch up for the Breeze Holiday Park/TPS Group Chevrolet Camaro of Brett Holdsworth at the opening round of the National Trans Am Series at AWC Race Tasmania, but the gains made leave him confident approaching Phillip Island.
Ending last season as one of the leading contenders in Trans Am, Holdsworth was consistent without taking victory to finish the season third behind the two Garry Rogers Motorsport entries of Nathan Herne and Owen Kelly.
It proved a disappointing opening qualifying session for Holdsworth after finishing 10th as gradually improvement was demonstrated through his results as he climbed to eighth in Race 1, before moving up two positions in the next contest.
Another a promising charge through the field led to fourth, but it was not without drama as rival Kelly contacted Holdsworth at the final corner on the last lap leading to a penalty given to the GRM driver elevating the Ashley Seward Motorsport-run Camaro back to fifth.
“It wasn’t the start to the weekend we wanted in qualifying, but the team got stuck in and by the final race we had the car we wanted to start the round with,” said Holdsworth.
“At the end there I was content with where we’d gotten to with fourth place but then we got drilled by Owen Kelly who was recovering from spinning off earlier on. He had the pace to pass but it was down to the final corner and he elected to shove me out of the way instead.
“We’ll go into the next round really fast out of the blocks as a result of that, but we’re probably a few points further back than we wanted to be, which wasn’t all our own doing.
“Looking towards Phillip Island, we put the car in a really good position setup wise by the end of the weekend so if we can roll out with that at the next round then we should be on for a really good fightback to get some points back in the series.”
The National Trans Am Series heads to Phillip Island for Round 2 as part of the Shannons SpeedSeries on May 12-14.