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Nathan Herne is a dual series winner in 2022, after winning the S5000 Tasman Series at the Valo Adelaide 500.
Herne’s victory in the two-round S5000 Tasman Series is his third national-level title, and follows his title-winning campaign in this year’s National Trans Am Series.
“It’s been awesome really, it has been a real whirlwind for me,” Herne told Speedcafe.com.
“To win so many of the races I started, it was a really good year.”
The Garry Rogers Motorsport driver won four races from six starts to win the revived iteration of the Tasman Series, clean-sweeping the Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500 round, while claiming Race 1 on the streets of Adelaide.
“It is awesome to put my name on the trophy, some pretty big names in history are on there, so it’s cool to be listed with them,” Herne added.
“To come home with the S5000 Tasman Series title, is probably one of the biggest things I’ve had happen to me in terms of racing.
“S5000 I feel like is one of the hardest categories in Australia to drive in and to race in, the cars are hard and the drivers are bloody good.
“When you win in that, you know you tick a couple of boxes.”
The title was sealed in controversial circumstances, as the Lismore driver limped home to finish Race 3 in 13th, after contact with two-time Australian Drivers’ Champion Joey Mawson while battling for the lead.
Herne dove down the inside approaching the Turn 9 hairpin, with Mawson covering the move under brakes.
It resulted in a nose-to-tail collision, before secondary contact was made between the duo.
Mawson was ultimately penalised 15 points for the initial maneuver, resulting in Herne claiming the S5000 Tasman Series title by 21 points.
“I’m not a bloke who likes to just back out and let the championship come to me in a way, I want to race for it,” Herne reflected.
“It wasn’t the way I wanted to do it, but I’m just happy that we at least managed to finish and wrap the championship up.”
While taking part in select rounds of the S5000 Australian Drivers’ Championship this year, Herne outlined his intentions to commit to an entire campaign in 2023.
In doing so, he will couple his S5000 campaign, with a third National Trans Am Series tilt with Garry Rogers Motorsport.
“I’m going to do the full S5000 series and full Trans Am series and do back-to-back races,” Herne declared.
“I want to go for a full championship in S5000 as we know that the Gold Star is a pretty big deal in Australian motorsport, and I want to put my name on that as well.
“I want to win two titles while racing in two different categories, in two different cars, on the same weekend, I think that’d be pretty cool.”
Off the back of his recent successes, Herne is adamant that he is ready to step up to the Supercars Championship.
“If the opportunity comes to move up, I’m going to be 100 percent ready and I feel like now I’m getting to that point now where I’m ready for it,” he said.
“I feel like I’ve been ready for the last two or three years.
“It’s been a lot of work to get to the point where I’m now and I think I’ve just got to keep putting results on the table.”
“I think I’ve shown enough adaptability now that I could probably have a shot in Supercars.”
