Thomas Randle believes his fitness is at an all-time high, five months out from the start of his first full Repco Supercars Championship campaign.

The 25-year-old has had a bumpy ride to the top.

He was diagnosed with testicular cancer in January 2020, defied that battle to win the Super2 Series crown that same year, only to miss out on a dream promotion to the main game through no fault of his own when Tickford Racing was unable to secure a fourth Racing Entitlements Contract for this season.

The Tim Edwards-led outfit does have that additional REC secured for 2022 and ironically, Randle is currently the team’s only contracted driver for next year.

Now, Randle knows where his 2022 journey will begin: the Newcastle East Street Circuit on March 4-6.

He does still have more racing commitments to look forward to this year, being a third solo wildcard event (likely to be at Sydney Motorsport Park on November 6-7) and then a Repco Bathurst 1000 co-drive, almost certainly partnering James Courtney.

Fitness has been a primary focus for the two-time British Formula 3 race winner, as he explained to commentator Chad Neylon in a video on Supercars’ official website.

“I have really been working on my fitness over the last six months since recovering from what I went through at the start of the year and I genuinely probably feel fitter now than I ever have,” said Randle.

“I just really want to work on that so when we get to Newcastle next year, which I think is going to be a pretty hot round at the beginning of March – it’s always quite warm up there being the north of New South Wales, and a street circuit is very demanding as well.

“So I just want to have everything right from my aspect; I don’t want to leave that round knowing that I could have been fitter and that I couldn’t handle, for example, the Sunday because you have really got to rebound from the Saturday.

“It’s interesting, our sport is not like AFL I guess where you play the game and then the next game is the following week.

“We put everything on the line, or our bodies on the line, on the Saturday and then we have got to completely rebound for Sunday and recover properly so we’re just as sharp to do another 250km race.

“So I have been working on my fitness and not even just for that, it’s also for the next wildcard round that we do and also for the Bathurst 1000 this year.

“I just want to make sure everything I do, I can do right.

“But it’s always a constantly evolving thing with your fitness, it can always be better, so that has been the #1 [priority] at the moment.”

Randle has recorded a top 10 finish in each of the two Supercars Championship rounds he has contested this year, placing eighth at The Bend and ninth at Darwin.