Stevenson set for ARC return after Island crash

Chris Stevenson will make his Aussie Racing Cars return at Hidden Valley this weekend after recovering from a spectacular crash at Phillip Island in April.

Stevenson was flung into a series of rollovers at the Victorian circuit’s high-speed Hayshed corner after making side-to-side contact with Zack Best and sliding sideways into the infield.

The Hertz-backed driver managed to extricate himself from his car but was transferred to Dandenong Hospital that night for a number of tests.

Stevenson was cleared of serious injury and has confirmed that he is fighting fit to make his category return.

“I spent the night in hospital and had every scan under the sun,” he explained.

“They put me through x-ray, ultrasound, CT, lots of other things as well, and I think it was about 10 hours in the neck brace until they finally cleared me and said ‘you’ve got no spinal injuries.’

“Then, the biggest concern they had was that my eyes were basically full of blood and I was blinded for about 45 minutes after the crash.

“I couldn’t see anything, which was scary, and I spent a week on the couch at home because I couldn’t really do much – I was all a bit light-headed and couldn’t keep my eyes open for more than 15 minutes.

“I’ve been at work for the last three weeks now so I’m a hundred per cent, good to go again – I was training two or three weeks after.”

While the car in question has all but been repaired, Stevenson will revert to the car in which he made his ARC debut in 2013.

It was last driven by team-mate Scott Stephenson in Adelaide’s season-opener.

A 36-car field will take to Hidden Valley Raceway for this weekend’s CrownBet Triple Crown, headlined by the return of Paul Morris in a one-off appearance for Scott Taylor Motorsport.