One of New Zealand's most successful harness race drivers shocked the country when he collapsed during a race six months ago but he’s aiming for a miraculous return this Friday.
Ricky May, known as Wee Man in the harness racing world, fell from the sulky after his heart stopped during a race back in January.
Fellow driver Ellie Barron, whose also a qualified physiotherapist, saw what happened to May and immediately sprung into action.
“I saw the predicament Ricky was in and jumped the fence,” Barron told 1 NEWS.
“He was lying down when I got there and non-responsive with no heartbeat.”
Barron performed CPR on the champion driver before he was taken to hospital and eventually brought back to life.
“Eight minutes [without a heartbeat], the doctor told me in Dunedin Hospital,” May said.
“That was pretty hard to believe. I can’t remember anything.”
Six months later, May is getting back in the thick of it, having his first public workouts as a driver in Ashburton today as he targets the Addington races on Friday.
“I thought I’d never drive again,” he said.
“But the more I thought about it, I thought, ‘Well, I just can’t go out this way.'”
And even with 2949 wins to date, he's still eyeing up another career milestone.
“Three thousand would be great. I’ve gone this far so it'd be nice to get there. It might take a wee while, but after so long being in the business it'd be nice to get there.”
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