NATHAN Herne has expressed disappointment after claiming a rival deliberately crashed into him during the American Trans Am season finale.
The Aussie ace was racing title contender Thomas Merrill for the lead at Circuit of the Americas when things turned ugly – the first time.
Herne made a forceful pass to grab the ascendancy, only to be taken out by a dubious move from Merrill a couple of corners later, spinning and damaging the #29 Ford Mustang.
Out of contention, Herne was then crashed into again later in the race by Merrill, sparking the Lismore product to take to social media to share his thoughts and onboard footage.
“I’m all for hard racing, and getting taken out of the lead happens – it’s life,” he wrote.
“Although when you’re in position nowhere after being taken out by a car, and then having the job finished on you by the same car, different story.
“That was nearly two written off cars and one of them was completely unrelated to incident.
“Emotions and adrenaline run high but I have never ever been intentionally crashed into.
“I had respect for Thomas, he races hard, generally fast, but I think it’s easy to forget that you can get seriously hurt in these things, I would’ve been fine had I hit the car minding his business, although me coming backwards into the driver’s door, the other car would’ve been in strife. It was lucky I missed him.
“Rant over, I think the video speaks for itself.”
Herne and Merrill had entered the event 10th and second in the standings, respectively.
They were classified 26th (one lap down) and 13th in the provisional results, while series leader Brent Crews took fourth place.
