KEY POINTS:
SYDNEY - A year ago Paul Radisich left Mt Panorama in an ambulance, a smashed ankle and broken sternum his souvenirs.
Travelling at around 200km/h, Radisich hit a tyre wall almost head-on and his Team Kiwi Racing Holden flipped onto its side, trapping him in the car.
He still walks with a limp as a result, with two further bouts of surgery required to repair the shattered bones in his leg.
Radisich, one of New Zealand's leading drivers, looks back and shakes his head at the position he finds himself in leading into Sunday's Bathurst 1000.
He will team up with compatriot Craig Baird in second of the powerful Toll HSV Dealer Team cars, boldly predicting a podium finish in Australasia's greatest race.
"I have a little bit of unfinished business at Bathurst after what happened there last year," Radisich said.
"To not only recover well enough to race but to come back with a team that is capable of a podium is something that 12 months ago I would not have thought was possible."
Radisich quickly turned the page on last year's race. He split with Team Kiwi Racing after their relationship "fell apart", then jumped at the chance when Toll HSV asked him to drive at Bathurst and the traditional leadup, the Sandown 500 in Melbourne.
"They called me up and didn't have to ask too many times."
Radisich teamed up with Rick Kelly to finish second at Sandown, while Baird and Garth Tander finished fourth.
Toll HSV then decided to team up their leading drivers Kelly and Tander at Bathurst, leaving the Kiwis to combine in what the team describe as 'an All Black and Orange Commodore'.
"It would have been nice to continue in that vain (in the top car) but this one is just as good," Radisich told NZPA as he travelled to Bathurst this week.
"We've been thrown into a very, very competitive team and car and we're definitely in the hunt. We both fly under the radar a little bit."
TAB Sportsbet rated the pair $26 to win the race today. Defending champions, Craig Lowndes and Jamie Whincup in a Ford, were $3.75 favourites, just ahead of Kelly and Tander at $4.
Radisich and Baird's first priority is to assist the Toll HSV stars to win the race. But as Radisich well knows, the end of the race can be just around the next high-speed corner for any team.
"With (Kelly and Tander) driving together at Bathurst, it means Craig and I get a car that effectively we can get out and drive as fast as we can without worrying about the championship position."
Radisich says he couldn't ask for a better co-driver than Baird, who finished fourth at his first Bathurst in 1997, alongside Steven Johnson. Radisich has run second twice, in 1990 and 2000.
The last time the pair teamed up was five years ago in a Christchurch endurance race, where they failed to finish. They have never teamed up across the Tasman.
"Craig's very experienced in these distance races. On paper we have all the ingredients for a podium finish."
Radisich says he is nearly back to 100 per cent after his injures, although the ankle still causes some problems when he cools down in the driver changeovers.
He wouldn't have returned to Bathurst if there was any mental scarring from last year, Radisich insists.
Meanwhile, New Zealand's other leading chance of success rests with four-time winner Greg Murphy and Jason Richards in the Tasman Motorsport car. The pair were rated $13 chances today.
- NZPA
