Nathan Herne will return to Australia to race the #10 Morgan’s Investments Dodge Challenger at Round 2 of the 2023 TA2 Muscle Car Series framed by Hytek Steel Framing at Hidden Valley Raceway on April 29-May 1.

The US-based Australian will team up with New Zealander Paul Manuell at the Darwin event for what will be the world-first TA2 race featuring a driver change.

“I’m keen to get back to Darwin,” 20-year-old Herne said. “I raced there in S5000 last year and the TA2 cars up there are going to be something different.

“It’s also the first time anyone in the Northern Territory will see these cars in the flesh and everywhere the TA2 cars go, whether it’s Australia or America, they quickly become the most popular cars there.”

Herne, a two-time winner of the National Trans Am Series, moved to Michigan for a shot at the 2023 American Trans Am Championship, with a second-place on debut at NOLA Motorsports Park, Louisiana, at the wheel of the #29 CUBE 3 Ford Mustang for Stevens-Miller Racing.

“Racing in America is a very different experience,” said Herne. “I haven’t had as much raw seat time as I would’ve liked to so far over there, but it has been very busy and I’ve learned a lot.

“The driving style between the American Trans Am cars and the Australian TA2 cars is quite different due to the tyres, so I will have to re-adapt to getting speed out of the Hoosiers”.

Manuell is a two-time NZ V8 Ute Championship winner and won the TA2 Asia Championship in 2019.

The pair will race the #10 Dodge Challenger owned by Peter Robinson, TA2 Muscle Car Series founder and Australian distributor for TA2 cars.

They join a number of high-profile drivers for the event, including Supercheap Auto TCR Australia Series front-runner Jordan Cox and five-time Dunlop Super2 Series race winner and Tickford Supercars co-driver, Tyler Everingham.

The driver pairing that scores the most points over the six races across two days of racing at Hidden Valley will receive $20,000 and proclaimed ‘Kings of the North’.