Matthew Hayley has a saying he’s used over the past few months: Shoot for the moon and if you miss, you’ll hit the stars.

On Tuesday, Jan. 23, the Brampton native did just that while breaking the Guinness World Record for most distance travelled on an indoor go-kart track in 24 hours.

Hayley needed to drive 3,940 laps at Formula Kartways in Brampton in order to accomplish that and he reached that mark with about an hour and a half to spare. At that point, he took a brief break to collect himself and speak with the media.

“It’s not just about breaking it by two or three kilometres,” the 30-year-old said before going out on the track again to complete the 24 hours and add to his record.

“When you break a record to me, you break it. You go through it and you go further.”

Hayley reached 772.29 km in 4,102 laps by the 24-hour mark, which exceeds the previous record of 733.68 km set by Trey Shannon of Charlotte, North Carolina.

One spectator on Tuesday said they wanted to see Hayley break the record by a wide enough margin that someone had to be beyond the “Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs,” level of nuts to try and break it.

Back in early December, Hayley described his journey to break the record as an underdog tale. He’s been a smoker for 10 years and although he was looking to stop, he couldn't quit cold turkey around his attempt because the nicotine withdrawal would be too much of a shock to his system.

Still, he was given the green light to go for the record by karting experts Shaun de Jager and David Tennyson and chief medical officer Andrew Jordan.

Along the way, Hayley used the record attempt as a fundraiser for the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation. So far, more than $4,500 has been raised for Princess Margaret and donations are still being accepted at thepmcf.ca/gokarting.