But Willis was the ultimate diplomat in sharing the limelight with defending champion Mathas and Huffer who were straining at the finish line.
"Brad has always been a tough competitor, so you never know what you're going to get from him," said the winner who seemed content to sit behind the pair for a lion's share of the race.
"He kept me on my toes, so I didn't want to give him an inch.
"Unfortunately I got a little too close to him. I think I stumbled his feet down the back straight, so that might have interfered with his stride a little bit, so I feel bad."
Huffer was recovering from injuries for a good part of last year, but Willis was delighted to see the Michigan-based Aussie back in the fray.
It was eight years ago that Willis officially opened the Hawke's Bay Sports Regional Park but the opportunity to compete here didn't arise until Saturday.
"It's a beautiful facility. It just felt like a track in the middle of fields when I first came here but now they've built the stands and everything else," he said, singling out the warm-up jogging track at the perimeter of the complex "as the best in the country".
"It's nice to have a good area to warm up and warm down on because it puts you in a good mindset of feeling good going into a race and that makes an extra bit of difference to your confidence."
Willis said his training, from an endurance perspective, was going well with a 10km to half marathon-type workout.
"So it was just about how I was going to handle the lactic acid earlier on but the race was slow enough for that not to become a factor."
Endurance, he said, was akin to what the late Arthur Lydiard used to do with the likes of Sir Peter Snell.
"They used to say if you train yourself like a marathon runner than you can use your speed at the end," Willis said, satisfied to have got the first race out of the way which provided a few more pieces to the jigsaw and validated his concerted five-month training regime.
Athletes always needed to translate their training into results otherwise it would mean nothing.
The 20-minute delay had the propensity to interfere with their warm-up process before the scheduled 7.13pm race but the "lovely warm weather" negated any complications.
The Rio Olympics in August is the bigger picture but Willis is at ease on account of having done that for a decade.
"You don't get too worried but it's always nice to a) cross the line first because victories come fewer and further in between so when they come you take them when you can."
The Potts Classic win is the ideal balm to soothe the nerves heading to the Cooks Garden Classic in Whanganui on Tuesday and the Capital Classic on Friday.
"If you're in good shape then you're not going to lose that fitness in three days so I'll take the next two races without worrying about it."
Having put on a couple of athletics meetings himself, Willis appreciated the effort that had gone into organising the 17th edition of the classic.
"A huge, huge thanks to Richard Potts for putting up this meet," he said, emphasising he came out specifically to honour Richard's father, the late Allan Potts, who meant a lot to him in his running career even though he hadn't coached him.
"To see his son do it now is a special thing to be part of."
Willis recalled visiting Allan Potts' home in Hastings to find a mountain of old running magazines greet him from the living-room floor.
"The breadth of people he affected through the sport has been an inspiration to me, not just as a runner but for my post-running career as well for just a small fingerprint size of what he did to other people's lives in the sport is something for others to aim for."
