''That was fun. I enjoyed every minute of that,'' Henderson said, of the one-hour and one-lap race.
• Slideshow: Highlands Park Action
Finishing seventh overall and the first non-GT car, his 6.2 litre Chev-engined, 650hp car was a handful on the wet Cromwell circuit, although it was a mechanical miracle that it made the start line at all.
A cracked driveshaft diagnosed late last week was fixed in the nick of time by two Dunedin companies - Otago Balancing Specialists and Metalspray Engineering, Henderson said.
After a tough South Island Endurance Series season marred by DNFs, Henderson was thrilled to ''get a finish for the guys, who work on the car''.
Racing on the initially slippery but slowly drying track, Aucklanders Sam Fillmore and Danny Stutterd claimed a convincing win in their Porsche 997 GT3 Cup, over the newly-arrived Camaro GT3 of Taranaki's Glenn Smith and co-driver Ian Hayr.
Debuting the monstrously-torqued (800Nm) machine, which was freighted into the country on Wednesday, Smith was getting in as much race mileage as possible this weekend, competing in the Euromarque class (because the Camaro was built in Italy) as well.
Christchurch's Danny Whiting and Andy Knight were third in their Porsche 991 GT3 after a last straight tussle saw Tim James, of Auckland, spin his 997 off the track then limp across the line in fourth.
Cromwell driver Grant Aitken was the second highest-placed Otago driver, finishing in 14th overall in his Toyota 86, in which he just completed the 1000km Targa New Zealand road race last month.
He also had the honour of being the first Cromwell driver home. Aitken said the whole weekend had been ''great fun'' and he loved having the race track in his backyard.
The overall results after the three, 11-lap Euromarque races mirrored the 1+01 podium, Fillmore first, Smith second and Whiting third.
A fourth place in Saturday's first Australian GT race was enough for professional German racer Christopher Mies, driving with Ryan Millier in the Audi R8 LMS GT3 Ultra, to secure his first Australian GT Championship title.
