And the 22 year old is very keen to perform well at the NZRC venue closest to his home base of Christchurch, after having to travel to the north of the North Island for the last two rounds - WRC Rally New Zealand based in Auckland and then NZ's Asia-Pacific regional round at Whangarei.
"It's been a challenging season so far - both on and off the road - with small setup issues with the car affecting the first three rounds to varying levels of frustration," said Matt.
"Since Whangarei we have made some changes and after a brief test, have now got the car the way we want it. All that power [from the ScottSpeed Performance Engines powerplant] is getting converted into more outright speed and the car is all set. Now it's up to me to step up and use the knowledge I gained from the Elite Motorsport Academy to really get the best out of myself as well."
Immediately after Rally Whangarei, at the start of last month, Matt flew to Dunedin for the weeklong MotorSport NZ Elite Academy, where he learned to 'tune' himself, in such areas as Nutrition, Fitness and driving a simulator in extremes of temperature.
"It takes heaps to get the car working to the max, and having been fortunate enough to be invited to the Academy, and a month to implement what I learned there, I can't wait to see just how much better I can now perform behind the wheel."
So following an excellent test session at a rallysprint at the South Canterbury Car Club's BNT Motorsport Weekend, Matt and his team of loyal volunteers head to Nelson with renewed confidence.
"We went very well at Nelson last year, wrapping up our two national titles, so we are looking forward to what we commonly refer to as our second 'local' [South Island] round of the series with it's fabulously fast wide roads that demand real commitment if you want to come away with the best possible stage times."
This year's Rally Nelson is being run a month earlier than it's regular date of mid to late September, so it could well be wetter and colder than usual, meaning that tyre wear might not be so severe and rocks are less likely to appear on the racing line, put there by the passage of the preceding cars.
"It will be very interesting to see just what the roads are like at this time of the year, and especially after all the rain that has hit the Nelson area this winter," said Matt. "There are a lot of top gear corners on these main forest arterial roads, so it is vital that you carry good speed through them, otherwise you can lose a heap of time very quickly."
"Therefore precise pace notes written during Recce will be vital to achieving top times as we will have to pay particular attention to what is on the inside and outside of these corners. That way we can make use of any run off areas to maintain the highest possible speeds, and also have the option of using them if we come across any of these displaced rocks that we suddenly need to avoid..."
"Which, all in all, makes for a very exciting and challenging weekend.." concluded Matt.
This year's NZRC campaign would not be possible without the dedicated support of Mitech Welders, PMT Motorsport , Armstrong Subaru , Blue Bridge & Strait Shipping, Proflex Suspension, HGM Construction, Dunlop Tyres , Pagid Brake Pads, and ScottSpeed Performance Engines.
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