Motorsport: Kiwi driver Chelsea Herbert making comeback after horror crash

Chelsea Herbert crashed at Teretonga Park in Invercargill in January 2020. Photo / Supplied

Chelsea Herbert is set to race again, nearly two years after a crash which left her with broken bones in her back.

The then 21-year-old was in her second weekend of single-seater racing when she crashed her Toyota Racing Series car at Teretonga Park in Invercargill in January 2020. She was hospitalised with fractures in her T11 and T12 back vertebrae and that was the end of her series.

Herbert was just the sixth female to contest the TRS, after Fiona Hamilton (2005), Christina Orr (2006-08), Leanne Tander (2007), Michela Cerruti (2012) and Tatiana Calderon (2013).

By the time Herbert was back to full fitness, the racing season was over. After skipping most of 2021, she will be back behind the wheel next month for the opening race of the Toyota 86 Championship. Herbert will be part of the three-car The Heart Of Racing team and will contest all six rounds.

"I'm really excited to be racing again. I'm fully recovered and more than ready to get back behind the wheel," Herbert said.

"It has been two years since I've been in a tin top, so I'm looking forward to honing in on my experience and skills. I haven't run an H pattern gearbox since I was in Class 2 V8s back in 2017, so that will be an area where I will need to blow out the cobwebs and focus."

Although unable to take on some of the world's best young drivers in this summer's TRS, Herbert is focused on her new series.

After a successful karting career, Herbert contested the Ssangyong Series before moving to the domestic V8 Championship, first in Class 2, then Class 1. She scored wins, pole positions, fastest laps and multiple podium finishes in four years of racing.

This will be the first time she has raced a saloon car since she competed in Class 1 of the national V8 Touring Car Championship in 2018-19 and she's up for the challenge.

"I've tested the car now, and even though it doesn't have the outright pace of other cars I've driven in recent years, I came in smiling from ear to ear. It was really fun to drive.

"It feels very light compared with the TLX V8 and the FT-60 [TRS car], so it'll be good fun learning how to balance the car right on the edge. The most important part of driving the 86 will be keeping the momentum up, due to the lower power."