Howard strapped into the #18 Dewalt Camaro alongside Mark Winterbottom as a reward for 21 years of service to the category.
Bathurst hotlaps in Supercars are rare as it’s the only event of the season without a dedicated ride session.
Howard had done Supercars hot laps before at Townsville and the Circuit of the Americas but declared them “nothing like this”.
“Seriously, I’ve never experienced anything like that in my life,” Howard told Speedcafe shortly after the Saturday morning laps.
“It’s just mind blowing. You just can’t comprehend how fast, how deep they’re going into the turns, how much speed they maintain.
“Like, holy shit! It was unbelievable. It was frightening but unbelievable! And over the top [of the Mountain], you physically feel that a car can’t go round there that quickly.
“Then you’re thinking: well, these guys are battling with 25 other dudes, they’re all trying to overtake people and got people trying to overtake them. You go: ‘holy shit…’
“There’s a whole new appreciation of the skill level that it takes to handle one of these things around there. It was incredible. I’m literally shaking.”
Howard rose to the CEO role at Supercars in 2022 following extended stints as the head of its events arm and then as Chief Operating Officer.
“I clicked over 21 years full-time for Supercars and Barclay [Nettlefold] said, ‘what can we do for you? What would be something very special for you?’” Howard explained.
“And I said, ‘I don’t need a watch or anything like that. If I could do something that would be the most special thing for me would be to do a hot lap at Bathurst at the 1000’.
“And he said, ‘ok, we’ll try and make that happen’.
“You think back to when you’re a kid, everybody who has watched the race on the couch with their dad, and you say, ‘how amazing would it be to be there and be in a Supercar?,’ and I did it today, so it was a very, very special moment. Very, very special.”
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