On the back of two consecutive seasons on the Dunlop Series podium, placing second in 2013 and third last year, Walsh was offered a drive in the 2015 V8 Supercars championship by Erebus Motorsport.

Walsh admits it has not been an easy adjustment stepping up to the iconic series, but with 24 races now under his belt, he is feeling more at home.

“It’s a massive step up, everyone talks about how big of a step up it is, but I think it’s pretty hard to prepare yourself,” Walsh said.

“I walked into the main series and I was prepared as I could be and certainly on the first weekend, a top 10 [eighth placing in race two] skewed my perception as to how easy it was going to be.

“It hasn’t been smooth sailing ever since. If you get one little thing wrong, you are back down the back again. I’ve certainly learnt a lot and I’ve got a pretty good team-mate [Will Davison] to learn off, so I am pretty lucky in that respect.”

This year will mark Walsh’s third participation in the Bathurst 1000. 

He placed 15th on debut with Tim Blanchard and last year when acting as co-driver for Dick Johnson Racing’s Scott Pye, at one stage had hopes of claiming a podium.

Their entry was fourth after 46 laps, but 10 laps later struck trouble when Pye crashed at Griffins Bend as that part of the Mount Panorama track broke up.

The damage to their Falcon was repaired and they returned to the track, but on lap 70 Pye crashed again after blowing a tyre. This time it was race over.

“Bathurst last year for us was going really well. Scott and I were running in the top four until we got caught out by that track breaking up,” Walsh said.

“Even then we were back up to the top six and had a tyre blow, so we were pretty unlucky last year not to get a result.”

Now behind the wheel of a Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG, Walsh is keen to push for another top 10 performance for Erebus as he pairs with co-driver Jack Le Brocq.

It means he will do more laps of the 6.213 kilometre circuit in this year’s Bathurst 1000 than he has previously shouldered. He will have the responsibility of both starting and finishing the race as well, but Walsh is ready for that challenge.

He is also keen to improve on the pair’s 19th placing at Sandown last month.

“It does feel different, it’s a lot more responsibility to finish at the end of the race and I will be doing a majority of the laps, which obviously I haven’t done before either,” he said. “But we do long races throughout the year, so I feel like I am ready, I feel like we can have a good Endurance Cup.”