Nathan Herne is confident of receiving medical clearance shortly before tomorrow’s first VHT S5000 Australian Drivers’ Championship practice session at Sandown after his airborne crash at Phillip Island.
Herne clashed spectacularly with Thomas Randle at the start of the Main Event (feature race) of Round 2 of the season last weekend, which led to a precautionary trip to hospital.
His racing licence has also temporarily been suspended, but the Garry Rogers Motorsport driver expects reinstatement to be a formality when he meets with Supercars medical delegate Dr Carl Le shortly before Practice 1, tomorrow morning.
“I’m 95 percent of the way there,” Herne told Speedcafe.com.
“I’m all the way there, pretty well; I’ll have my clearance.
“I have a meeting with Dr Carl and the chief medical officer tomorrow morning first up and then after that, all clear.
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“We’re all signed off, pretty well; I’ve had a doctor sign me off saying I’m fit to race and everything like that. It’s just that you have to go through the process from Motorsport Australia to get my licence reinstated and the easiest way is to see them tomorrow.”
Opening S5000 practice commences at 10:00 local time/AEDT, just after the Repco Supercars Championship field hits the track for the first time at the Penrite Oil Sandown SuperSprint.
Herne feels up to the task, given the physical activity he has been undertaking during the week already.
“I’m feeling all good,” he said.
“I mean, I went for a seven-kilometre run yesterday, I’ve been playing tennis every day this week, and there was nothing really wrong with me.
“I winded myself and I made the mistake of saying I winded myself and they all thought the worst, which was fair enough.
“They’re here to keep us safe and make sure we don’t injure ourselves further, but that was my first ever crash in motorsport and I didn’t realise that you’re meant to toughen up and crack on with it.
“But, we’re all good for this weekend; it’s just a pain just having to sort out all the paperwork as well as getting ready for the race weekend, especially with it being back-to-back.”
Stewards investigated the incident between Randle and Herne but found it to be a racing incident and therefore did not dish out any punishment to the former.
Randle leads the championship ahead of this weekend’s penultimate round, by a six-point margin over BRM team-mate Joey Mawson, while Herne sits fifth in the standings.
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