Motorbike rider Cormac Buchanan made history last weekend by becoming the first Kiwi to finish on the podium at a Junior GP World Championship event.
"It was an unreal moment," he said.
"I guess it still has not really sunk in, it's one of those things I always knew I could achieve but you never know if you're going to."
It is a moment 17-year-old Buchanan has come agonisingly close to before.
He is in his second season of the championship.
In the first race, he recorded a do not finish, but in the second he shot into the lead on the final lap.
With half a lap to go, the Kiwi misjudged a corner which pushed him back into fourth place.
Somehow, Buchanan pipped his competitor to claim third and create New Zealand history.
He said the trophy was like "my holy grail".
"It's my new prized possession."
Seeing the Kiwi flag above the podium was "pretty cool", he added.
"It was the first time I've seen one of those in road racing sports."
The Invercargill rider is touted to be one of the country's most promising.
1News first spoke to him at the age of 14 when he was preparing to make the move to Europe to compete in Red Bull's Rookie Cup.
The Buchanan family has been split living between Invercargill and Spain for four years.
His mother said it was "almost a sense of relief" that Cormac had placed on the podium.
"As a family, this is a journey we have all been on."
The pressure is now on for Buchanan as he hopes to get into the MotoGP World Championship circuit.
Graeme Crosby is the only Kiwi to finish on the podium in that competition, doing so in 1982.
Buchanan said it was a "cutthroat sport" and a "brutal industry".
"There are only 26 places on the grid and a lot of those guys will be staying for another year, so that dwindles it down to a very small number of available rides.
"I'm attacking it like no 'plan B', this is the only plan. I've got my eyes on one goal, and that's to be world champion."
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