Nathan Herne and James Moffat’s first day in the GRM wildcard at Bathurst was all according to plan. Image: InSyde Media
Herne and co-driver James Moffat ended the first of two practice sessions on Thursday afternoon in 15th position, while Herne placed 20th in the co-driver-only Practice 2, having run as high as sixth.
The Lismore native is contesting his first Supercars event after being refused a superlicence exemption to contest the 2020 event with the team.
Herne is adamant that day one at the track was a success considering the team’s extended period out of the series.
“It’s cool to tick off the first laps in a Supercar,” Herne told Speedcafe.
“I think there were a few things we definitely left on the table that probably didn’t show what we actually had on the first day.
“I was really happy with our pace given that we just ran the opposite to everyone else. On time sheets it doesn’t look all that flattering, to be honest.
“Overall I’m actually really happy with the day. The team worked out well, we didn’t have any mechanical failures all day.
“We’ve got a fair bit of a plan for the rest of the weekend, and we got through all the painful stuff like bedding brakes and doing all those processes and procedures today.”
Having met expectations for the most part, a couple of minor mistakes during a race run saw Herne settle further down the order.
“I did a little bit of a race around at the end there, which was good,” Herne added.
“But we made a change beforehand, we probably didn’t go the right way and I sort of just wheeled the thing, trying to keep it on the black stuff.
“Obviously it’s early, we’re a wildcard, and we’ve only come in for our first round, but to be honest, we exceeded expectations.
“So it was always going to be a bit tougher of a day and then we made a few errors, which to be honest is not a bad thing, I think it’s good to do it on the Thursday.
“The car’s still in one piece, we didn’t go off the track, and it hasn’t got any dirt on it.”
Nathan Herne watches on in Practice 1 at Bathurst. Image: Richard Gresham
While the round is his Supercars debut, Herne’s experience and success at Mount Panorama in Trans Am machinery has come in handy for his preparation – except for one key factor.
“One thing I didn’t give enough credit to before I came here was to sit on the opposite side of the car,” Herne said.
“It’s my first ever time actually racing a right-hand drive car this weekend, so that’s going to be an interesting thing for sure.
“Just to get laps is the goal for me, and it was the goal for today, and we got a few, probably not as many as I’d have liked, but at least we got to do the race run at the end there, and learned a lot in that time.”
Herne returns to GRM for the first time since 2023 when he last contested the S5000 Australian Drivers’ Championship and Tasman Series with the squad.
GRM is contesting its first Supercars event in six years, and both the team and Herne are learning the nuances of the series’ current form together.
The wildcard also marks a return to working together for Herne and Moffat, who were Trans Am teammates during Herne’s title success.
“The GRM boys, obviously it’s been a fair while since they’ve seen the cars as well, so we’re all sort of learning on the fly,” Herne said.
“It’s been good with Moff, he’s done 17 Bathursts now. So, between him, Russell [Ingall] and Marcos [Ambrose], I’m not going to count how many Bathursts, but there’s a lot of them!
“I’ve got a lot of experience around me and hopefully we have a good car come Sunday.”
Supercars returns on Friday for the first of two more practice sessions at 10:05am AEDT before qualifying in the afternoon.