Round 4

The 2026 edition of the Hyundai Excel State of Origin with Series X3 NSW and QLD is done and dusted for another year. Matt and 11 other NSW drivers made the trip up to Queensland Raceway for what was an awesome weekend of racing. Queensland Raceway is a track Matt has always wanted to visit so was pumped to have ticked it off with a good weekend!​

Race 1:

Matt started his weekend off strong learning the track in practice before qualifying P5 out of NSW drivers which was P24 overall. Unfortunately Matt was disqualified from qualifying for a mistake with the car setup. This definitely wasn't ideal but Matt was ready to move forward in the races. Matt started race 1 from the back in P37. Matt made a strong start moving up 5 positions before a safety car came out on lap 1. After a few laps the safety car came in and Matt continued to move forward finishing race 1 in P7 for NSW and 24th overall.

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Race 2:

Race 2 took place on Saturday morning to kick start what would be a big day of racing. Matt started out of P24 making a strong start moving up a few positions. Race 2 was very busy for Matt constantly fighting for positions with other drivers. At the end of race 2 Matt crossed the line in P5 for NSW and 20th overall. Although Matt didn't finish as high as he would have liked it was still a positive race making gains with car ready to take on race 3.​

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Race 3:

Matt started race 3 out of P20 making a good start moving up to P19 after lap 1. Race 3 was full on with the battle for the NSW podium positions. Matt moved into P4 for NSW before a mid race safety car came out. After the safety car ended Matt moved into P2 for NSW and was able to hold on to if for the rest of the race to grab his first NSW podium and finish in 18th overall!

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Race 4:

Matt was pumped for race 4 after a strong race 3. With 25 laps in race 4, anything could happen. Matt made a strong start holding P2 for NSW will throughout the race moving his way up to 13th overall. A safety car came out with about 10 laps to go which neutralised the race. With a handful of laps to go the race restarted and it was full on from there with battles happening everywhere to move up those final positions. Unfortunately with 3 laps to go coming out of turn 1, Matt had an unfortunate incident with P3 which ended his race there with damage. This was really disappointing as Matt felt he had to speed to stay and fight for another podium to end his weekend off and a really strong note. Thankfully the damage to the car was only minor and Matt will rebuild for the next one!

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Overall, Matt was very happy with the weekend. Leading into the weekend, Matt had sent the cylinder head off to be rebuilt to help improve his performance. The re built head made a big difference for Matt and helped him a lot to get up into the podium positions. Although the weekend ended on a bad note, Matt is now confident to be fighting for podiums at the remaining rounds of the NSW championship! A big thankyou goes to Lindsay Martin from Martin Race Engines for getting the head re built and all the support over the weekend! A huge thank you goes to Matt’s sponsors for their continued support:

313 Automotive, MediSleep, AYE Tech, Pro Detailing Sydney, VMedical and HT Motorsport. Special thanks as well to both Series X3 NSW and QLD for what was an awesome weekend up in Queensland. Matt can't wait to get back up to Queensland Raceway sometime soon!

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Next Up:

Matt will be back on track In October at Sydney Motorsport Park for round 5 of the Series X3 NSW championship. Although the long gap between races suck, Matt has a good amount of time to repair and upgrade the car before we are back on track for a big push to end the year off on a high! Until then make sure to check out Matts social channels and we see you back on track on October 17th!