IT has been a big year for Jobe Stewart and he is ready to take on the famed Mount Panorama for a second time in the 2022 Toyota 86 Series.

Stewart enters this weekend’s round supporting the Bathurst 1000 sitting a strong third in the championship, but will need to get his elbows out to hold onto it, with three drivers breathing down his neck.

The young Mount Gambier driver also enjoyed success when the championship previously visited the mountain at the Bathurst 12 Hour, which means he is taking on the road trip with confidence.

“I got a couple of podiums when we went there last, so we should have pretty good pace straight out of the gate,” he said.

“I have some good experience from the last few years and the car is pretty much ready to go because we have had plenty of time to prepare since Sandown.”

Stewart is looking for a trouble free weekend after an early penalty and some bad luck at the most recent round at Sandown.

After a strong Friday where he recorded a P3 finish in the second practice session, the family based squad would have entered Saturday with a spring in its step.

This confidence would have only been heightened during qualifying when Stewart looked set to record some fast times, only for to abort his flying laps due to some spinning cars ahead.

To make matters worse, the Erebus Academy driver was handed a five-spot grid penalty after passing a car during a red flag.

Stewart said it was initially tough to recover from the setbacks, knowing he could have been on pole had Lady Luck been on his side.

“The weekend did not get off to a great start, getting a grid penalty for passing under a red flag in practice, which put us on the back foot,” he said.

“I had no idea it was a red flag, the cars in front were just going super slow and by the time I passed them it was too late, but I guess I could learn from it.

“It took a while to get up to speed and I then got held up on my last two laps which could have been the fastest.”

These setbacks meant Stewart started the first race from 11th and he “just tried to keep his nose clean” on his way to recovering a solid eighth place finish.

The second race Stewart continued his climb up the order once he settled into a rhythm.

The Blue Lake driver finished a rare safety car free sixth and admitted it was a taxing drive pushing from the green to the chequered flag.

“It felt like a long race without the safety car and I think it was the first time we had not had a safety car all year,” Stewart said.

“It was really tough because you get really hot in the car, sweating a lot, so by the end of it I felt dehydrated, but it was fun.”

A huge finish to the weekend looked on the cards when Stewart flew away from the blocks and bolted from sixth to third.

But sadly a scuffle at turn 1 shuffled Stewart back down the pack and he had to settle for fifth.

“I got the clutch slip pretty perfect, so it felt like a rocket ship as I passed two cars in front at the start,” he said.

“After that I was in a battle for second and third, but made a mistake because I thought there was someone on my outside so I did not leave enough room for the bloke on my inside and a bit of contact pushed me to fifth.

“There was potential to have a strong result, but I still collected good points for the championship.”

Stewart has not only been busy in his Toyota, he has also been cutting some laps in the virtual world competing in the Supercars Eseries for a third straight season for Erebus Motorsport.

The competition put the Mount Gambier teenager against some of the best sim races from around the country on some of the best tracks around the world.

The drivers went door to door on the iRacing platform, but for Stewart it proved to be a valuable learning experience.

After some “frustrating” rounds, Stewart at least finished the season on a high with a season-best result in the finale at Oran Park.

Representing Erebus Motorsport the young steerer drove through so, e carnage to collect a confidence-boosting seventh place finish.

It was a nice way for Stewart to end a campaign where things had not gone his way and admitted it was a tough challenge to balance his racing commitments with the ever-increasing school workload for year 12.

“I did not prepare enough for the races each week because there was a fair bit going on with year 12 at school, so I would have liked to have done a bit more practice,” he said.

“This would have given me more pace, especially in qualifying and because the races are so short, starting in the teens makes it really hard.

“It was still fun, but the competition is so tough you need to dedicate your life to it for just to do well.”

Fortunately for Stewart he said most of his year 12 commitments are out of the way now, which means he can give it his all at Bathurst where the entire Australian Motorsport world will be watching.