Shane van Gisbergen has been doing everything he can to reel this year's Supercars Championship leaders back in.
But unfortunately for him, they quartet ahead of him have pretty fast cars.
A clear Championship winner last year, the star Kiwi driver currently sits fifth on the leaderboard with two meets remaining - this weekend's Auckland Supersprint in Pukekohe and the season-ending event in Newcastle.
Yet, as unlikely as he is to overtake Jamie Whincup and company, he heads into his home event with a solid run of form behind him and plenty of belief.
Van Gisbergen has earned podium finishes in five of his last 10 Championship races, and hits the track at Pukekohe as defending champion.
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Having grown up around the corner in south Auckland, he couldn't wait to race.
"Being on the other side of the fence is pretty cool," van Gisbergen said.
"I can stay at home, come home early and just love racing there - that's where my interest in V8s started, watching the racing there.
"I'm just going to do my best, get some good results, see where we end up."
The 28-year-old van Gisbergen, who finished fifth in this year's Bathurst 1000 and earned fourth and third placings two weeks ago on the Gold Coast, signed a new deal with the Red Bull Holden Racing Team on Wednesday.
He'll remain with the team - to which he is aligned through Triple Eight Race Engineering - until the end of 2019 at least.
Van Gisbergen said it was an exciting time to remain in the VF Commodore, with a new car ready for 2018 and a new V6 twin-turbo engine for the year after.
"The continuation was a no-brainer," he said.
"It just means that, next year, we'll go into it not thinking about what's going to happen the year after and just focus on what we're doing.
"There's a lot going on and, as a driver, change is always exciting - I want to be part of it, build up with the team, get better and better."
