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Sweeny is set to make his Super3 debut aboard a Holden Commodore VF, run by Image Racing, at Bathurst next week – although is currently still hunting the final pieces of the budget.
Should the funding come together he will race the car that Jobe Stewart won the Super3 title in last year, which will be a possible stepping stone to an Image ZB in 2025.
“Well, that’s Plan A, but we’re still we’re not locked in, still looking around options, but we will definitely be on the Super2 grid next year,” explained Sweeny.
“The Super3 thing is just to be in the paddock again and get used to driving a Supercar kind of thing, and a bit of practice leading into next year.
“Initially, we plan on doing Sandown, and then Bathurst. But combined with budget restraints and the car not being available, it was just kind of worked out to be the one-round deal. It obviously being the biggest race of the year, was kind of the pick of the bunch for us.”
The former Hyundai i20 N TCR pilot won seven races in two seasons of the Supercheap Auto TCR Australia Series and was a race winner at Mount Panorama. Last year he finished second in the points.
“We had a bit of a learning year in our rookie season.,” he said. “We had a few mechanical issues but were pretty much the quickest out on the track.
“Saw the writing on the wall for the category. The whole time I was in TCR, there was dangling carrot of going overseas was the reason we went there and eventually saw that would not eventuate. So, we pulled the pin this year and re-evaluated where we wanted to end up.”
The 21-year-old from the south coast of NSW started in karts. He became an Erebus Academy Junior and competed in the Toyota Gazoo Racing Australia 86 Series in 2020. A successful 2022 reaped fifth in both the 86 and the TCR titles.
“I drove a Supercar two years ago, the Mercadore when we heavily in with Erebus and since I have done two test days recently in the VF,” he confirmed in the lead up to Bathurst.
“I wouldn’t say I have done a lot, but I do have some miles under my belt. I have been happy with the one-lap pace, but the main struggle was to get used to the tyres on a long run, to make them last.”
There he will be up against the Matthew White pair of Nissan Altimas driven by Cody Burcher and Thomas Maxwell and hopes to beat many of the Super2 cars in a proven package.
