Roll on Pukekohe, says Richards.

Jason Richards can't wait to race on his home track, New Zealand's Pukekohe Park Raceway next weekend, after being denied the chance last year following the 2003 V8 Supercar Series' most spectacular accident.

The New Zealand-born former Auckland resident, who joined Sydney-based Tasman Motorsport in 2004, had just completed the first practice session in a Team Dynamik car when contact with a tyre bundle launched his car into the air, where it barrel-rolled several times before finally coming to rest on its roof. Richards was shaken but unhurt, but took no further part in the weekend.

"I'd just like to start the race this year, that would be nice," Richards said this week. "It was pretty disappointing not to be able to race in front of my home crowd, I always enjoy racing at Pukekohe."

After a tough second round at Eastern Creek, in which the Tasman Motorsport VX Commodore was retired after receiving substantial damage when opponent Todd Kelly veered in front of him, Richards is looking to get his season back on track.

"If was pretty disappointing to have a DNF so early in the season, but we have to remember just that - it's only early and there's plenty of time to make amends," Richards said. "We've got a good program in place and we saw at Clipsal that the car is competitive, so we just have to make sure we're finishing races from here on."

Tasman Motorsport general manager Jon Matthews said the team had been forced to abandon its pre-season plan to debut a newly constructed VY Commodore at Pukekohe.

"When we compared the workload and the race schedule prior to NZ it became clear that we would have little opportunity to complete the VY," he said.

"Now that the boat has left, we can put our focus on building and testing the car and getting it ready for its debut in Round 6 at Queensland Raceway.

"Even if the car had been fully prepared, it came down to the fact that we didn't have time to test before putting it on the boat to New Zealand - we'd rather race a known quantity in the VX than risk an untried VY."