Erebus Academy drivers Jobe Stewart, Bailey Sweeny and Harry Gray hit the ground running as they each commenced their third season of Toyota 86 last weekend.

Despite the tricky weather conditions, the trio managed to hold positions inside the top 10 throughout every session of the weekend.

Securing a podium result in each race across the weekend, Stewart was pleased by his season opener performance and is excited for the year ahead.

“I was feeling pretty confident. It was forecast to be wet all weekend and those conditions were what got me to the podium in Sydney last year,” Stewart said. 

“It feels good knowing that podiums are hopefully going to be pretty regular throughout the season after finishing third in all of the races.

“We still have a little bit more to deliver to catch the top two but I’m feeling pretty good heading into the rest of the season.”

Racing with a brand new car after a busy off season, Gray was looking forward to commencing the 2022 season at his home track. 

“I’ve done plenty of laps at Sydney Motorsport Park so to start the season off there definitely boosted my confidence,” Gray said. 

“After topping practice one, my hopes were high for the weekend but the weather was quite tricky to navigate.

“I haven’t done much wet running so to be able to maintain a top ten position across the weekend was great, I think we’re going to be quite competitive this year.”

Continuing to work his way up the field, Sweeny finished sixth in Race 1 before battling his way up to fourth in the following two races. 

“Sydney is a track I know well and somewhere I saw good results last year so it was a great starting place for us in the championship,” Sweeny said. 

“We achieved our goal of top five pace but I definitely think we had some more potential.

“I got caught in traffic during qualifying and with all of the safety cars and red flags, it’s hard to make progress during the race but to end the weekend fourth overall is a great start to the year.”

All three of the Academy drivers will be back on track for the Townsville SuperSprint, 8 – 10 July.