The Trico Trans Am Series will welcome back a two-time champion for this month’s AWC Race Tasmania, with Nathan Herne locked in for the round.
With the series taking place at Symmons Plains for the second round of the 2024 Shannons SpeedSeries season, Herne will return as a privateer entry and in the same Dodge Challenger he steered to the 2021 title.
Having also claimed the 2022 title, Herne enjoyed a dominant spell in the series – winning 19 races from 35 starts and collecting a further 14 podiums.
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As a result, Symmons Plains proved a happy hunting ground for the New South Welshman during those years, with Herne finishing on the podium in all six races he contested there, including three wins.
Following on from a successful 2023 in the USA, where he took three podiums throughout the season, Herne was looking forward to returning to Australia and taking part in the Trico Trans Am Series.
“I know the series title is a long shot, but I definitely want to come back and go straight to the top,” Herne said.
“The stuff I’ve learnt over the last year, the cars were quite different but there’s plenty of things I can relate to in theory. The competition in Trans Am has stepped up to an extent, which is good, there’s more of those professional benchmarks – guys like Moffat, Golding, Hazelwood, and Slade.
“I’ll do a shakedown at Winton just to make sure everything works how it should, but then we’re straight into the deep end in Tassie. A lot of people say Symmons Plains is a drivers’ track, but I believe a lot of it also comes down to the setup of the car, if it’s just one percent off it’s very hard to make that up.
“I’ll be the crew chief, engineer, and mechanic in the garage at home. I have some guys coming to help out at the track which will take the load off but it’s very much a self-run effort. It’s an awesome opportunity to try and test myself off the track as well as on it.
“It’s something I’ve always wanted to do, especially more so recently, as I think taking responsibility is pretty important to moving forward, and unfortunately for myself, if things go backwards there won’t be many others to blame.
“I think it’ll be a stressful weekend, but hopefully rewarding.”
Trans Am will be broadcast live and free via the Seven network, with racing to form part of the 7plus stream, while select races will be shown on free-to-air coverage on 7mate.
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The Shannons SpeedSeries’ second round for 2024, AWC Race Tasmania, takes place at Symmons Plains on 15-17 March.
Photo: Jack Martin
