KEY POINTS:
New Zealand A1GP driver Jonny Reid believes he is close to a Formula One deal.
"I am very, very close [to picking up a F1 deal]," he says. "It would be as a test driver first, like what last year's champion Nico Hülkenberg is doing with Williams. If it was a test with a decent team, I would go for it.
"That would still let me race A1GP because it is in the [F1] off-season. The more you can do as a driver, the better. But the other side is A1GP is so young and it's already grown so much, so who knows where it will end up? Do I want to give that up? That's the golden question but it's an exciting future."
Absolutely and there's no doubt that F1 could see Reid's career hitting new heights although, for a guy who has no trouble hurtling down a track at more than 300km/h, it might come as a surprise to learn that Reid has a profound fear of heights.
On a recent trip to Sydney, he was so unnerved, he wouldn't let go of the handrail while attempting the Harbour Bridge climb.
"It was a windy day," he says grinning sheepishly, trying to emphasise the danger of the exercise. "I do extreme things and give it a go but not when it comes to heights. The difference with a race car is that you're in control and it's not something that intimidates me.
"You do an apprenticeship in racing from a young age so you know what you are doing. I'm getting better [with heights] but I just have too many things I want to achieve before I jump out of an aeroplane or go bungy jumping."
Of course, one of those aims is winning A1GP races and, ultimately, the A1GP title. The 24-year-old, who stands 1.72m and weighs 65kg, has won five races over the past three-and-a-half seasons, while also accumulating 12 podium finishes and two pole positions.
It's a good return and one that helped New Zealand to fourth and second overall in the first two seasons of the world cup of motorsport.
The difference in 2007-08, however, is that Reid isn't sharing Black Beauty with Matt Halliday, who is back racing in the Champ Car World Series, translating into New Zealand's best start to an A1GP season.
After four events, they are third on the table, 20 points behind leaders Switzerland but only one point behind second-placed France. They led after the second round.
Next weekend, A1GP rolls into Taupo for the first races in five weeks and it's an event in which Reid is desperate to do well.
Last year he finished third in the 70-minute feature race, emerging with blisters all over his hands after waging a losing battle with a stubborn steering wheel. It wasn't the only difficulty he had and this time he's determined to avoid getting caught up in the hype and expectations surrounding his home event.
"To get the best of myself, I need the time to do Jonny Reid, the racing driver," he says slipping into the third person. "I have to treat it like a normal race meeting and look after what is important - winning the race.
"Last year, I wasn't strong enough [to say no to all of the demands on my time]. It was fantastic but sometimes it got a bit much. This year, I feel like I have it more under control."
Reid appears to have most things under control. He's personable, unassuming and has retained that Kiwi-kid approach despite living life, as he says, "in the fast lane".
"You definitely have to be a racy person but I love it."
Things have changed significantly from four years ago, when he was starting to doubt his ability while finishing down the field in an inferior car in the Formula 3 series in Japan.
Just last week, he was racing a Boeing 777 down the runway at Auckland International Airport for a publicity stunt and he's already had contact from Formula 1 teams to let him know they are tracking his progress.
For now, though, Reid will spend time poring over DVDs of racing on the Taupo circuit so he knows every corner intimately.
He will then study it even more closely when he knows what position on the grid he will start from. He will learn what lines other cars around him will take and what passing opportunities there might be.
It will take some nerve to go for the gaps but it is a place Reid feels right at home. After all, he's only a few inches off the ground.
