Nathan Herne’s Mountain Memories

As a huge grid prepares to return to Mount Panorama for the Hi-Tec Oils Bathurst 6 Hour event next weekend, two-time Trans Am Champion Nathan Herne has reflected on the race that brought both his and Trans Am’s profile to the big stage. 

It was in 2021 on a cool calm Easter Sunday morning where Herne’s talent was on show, when the then 18 year old thrilled the crowd with an enthralling race long battle with 2019 TA2 Champion Aaron Seton, and says to this day, it was one of his best races. 

"Bathurst is one of my favourite tracks and racing against Aaron has always been enjoyable because he’s a clean, smart racer and despite how close we’ve been over the years we’ve never made contact and that race was no exception,” said Herne. 

“The whole race I was waiting for Aaron to make a mistake, but he never did and we were both on the limit every lap so it made for a great show for TV and the crowd.” 

“I remember getting out of the car in pit lane after the race and we were both dripping in sweat and exhausted, but we hugged and high five’d everyone because they all knew how hard it was to drive that close and clean for so long,” said Herne. 

The track conditions that weekend were absolutely perfect for the TA2 cars, with the combination of ideal air temperature and surface grip contributing to lap times that no one had previously thought possible, setting a new benchmark for what these cars could do.

In 2019 former TA2 driver George Miedecke set a benchmark pole time of 2.16.3 which at the time everyone thought was impressive but only 2 years later, both Seton and Herne were posting times no one had ever imagined, consistently running 2.10 and 11 second laps during the race 3 which Herne said was totally unexpected. 

"The conditions were perfect, but the tyres were definitely on their last legs by race 3, so the times we were still putting down showed just how hard we were pushing.” said Herne

“The lap record is currently in Seton’s name but we were both lapping 2:10.5’s and the lap hasn’t been beaten since 2021, so it will be interesting to see if someone knocks it off next weekend as it’s stood for a while now.”

Round 2 of the 2025 TFH Hire TA2 Muscle Car Series - Presented by Maritimo Luxury Motor Yachts kicks off April 18-20 at Mount Panorama, Bathurst and is a shared round with the National Trans AM series. Saturday and Sunday’s races can be watched live and free to air on SBS on Demand, simulcast on Fox Sports and Kayo Sports.