Champion Burke revelling in 2018 glory

It’s been a long and difficult road for Kim Burke in his hunt for a Radical Australia Cup title.

Since making his RAC debut in 2012, Burke has managed to finish the season second twice, but this year his fortunes changed for the better.

After a string of mechanical issues and DNFs constantly plagued him throughout his career, Burke finally broke the duck in 2018 thanks to a highly consistent season.

Following his maiden RAC title, Burke believes that his off-season’s preparation was key in getting him the title.

“This season was awesome, it basically went all to plan because we had two goals at the start of the year,” Burke said.

“Our first goal was to make sure that the car was 100 per cent from a mechanical point of view, which we achieved by the fact that we finished every race.

“Our second goal was from a driving perspective with the focus to get the balance right for every race.

“We didn’t have any crashes throughout the whole season and we didn’t have any mechanical DNFs, only a lack of firsts, so I think that’s what clinched the Cup.”

While Burke’s only round win came at Sandown Raceway in May, he did everything he had to do at every other meeting to secure the title.

The 52-year-old’s biggest threat came from first year driver Chris Perini who was quicker at different stages of the season, only to have a number of accidents and mechanical issues prevent him from a stronger charge.

They were the same issues that had troubled Burke and his search for a title for all those years, with last year’s fourth place, the New South Welshman ‘s silver lining moment.

“I had two really bad years by my standards and that’s when I decided that enough is enough,” Burke explained.

“I needed to do something about it and compete properly, have proper engineering support, get really good coaching and just put everything together.

“I got James Winslow to coach me through the season, had a data engineer for the car at every race meeting and we had Chris Papadopoulos in the work shop who made sure we had a our setups right.

“That was the difference from this year to all the rest and that is how we won.”

Now that Burke finally has the monkey off his back and is full of confidence celebrating his long awaited RAC title, the champion hopes to return next year and go back-to-back.

“Plans for next year are not fully determined but hopefully I will be able to find the time to get back in the Radical and do it all again,” Burke said.

“It’s fantastic. I am pretty sure that this is the pinnacle of my sporting career and it’s better late than never – you don’t want to rush these things.

“However for me right now, celebrating the victory for the rest of my life sounds pretty good.”

The Radical Australia Cup is currently in the process of creating the 2019 calendar, with a new format in competition already announced earlier in the year.