The 36-year-old was diagnosed with testicular cancer earlier in the year but a few days ago was ecstatic to be told he was cancer-free.

He still has a lump on his lung, which is not cancerous and will be treated with tablets, but for the time being he seems to be in the clear.

"(They'll) keep an eye on a few things but at the moment we've dodged a bullet I think," Van Ginneken said.

The former Northern Territory and Western Australian sprintcar champion had spent the past five months in-and-out of medical appointments, being pinned and prodded with needles, as well as undergoing surgery in August and spending a couple of days in hospital.

He described the period as being full of angst and constant worry because of the "wait and the unknown".

"I haven't planned ahead anything, you couldn't do anything," he said.

"You'd go to sleep thinking about it, you wake up at one o'clock in the morning thinking about it. You'd be wide awake for the rest of the day.

"Once I was told we'd dodged a bullet for the moment, it was like, the relief off the shoulders was unreal."

Van Ginneken worked while he waited, with the odd late start or early finish.

He said he had been "on top of the world" the past couple of days after finding out he was cancer-free and said he "slept like a log" that night.

Getting enough sleep had been an issue for him and he admitted to occasionally starting work (on the computer) at 4am on some days because he was wide awake.

While this was happening it was understandable that returning to racing wasn't at the forefront of the builder's mind.

Next weekend Portland's Angus Hollis will drive Van Ginneken's car in the 360 All-Stars Sprintcars event at Heathmere.

The champion driver will then re-assess his return to the sport but said his fitness wasn't ideal to come back straight away after gaining 12 kilograms across the past five months.

"I might try and do Premier (Speedway) on the 19^th (November), the Vic title," he said.

"See what happens. If not I'll try and get to Premier on the 17th of December (Max's Race) I reckon.

"And if I feel all right I'll try and do those couple of 410 ones in January and if not we'll get Angus Hollis to have a skid.

"See how next weekend goes, I still want to get right into it from January onwards."

As well as having his wife and kids by his side, Van Ginneken received "overwhelming" support from friends, family and the community after his diagnosis.

A look at his Facebook timeline shows this, with the sprintcar driver receiving 420 likes and 216 supportive comments on a picture of him post-surgery.

"It's funny, there's people that I don't see very often, just ringing or texting or just sending you something like a funny meme through SMS or something just to keep you going," he said.

"I've had a few people call around home and just drop stuff off.

"But just random people sending a message or some people I don't even know or a couple of people that have been through the same thing.

"It makes a big difference."

The Premier Speedway's season-opening event was scheduled to be held on Saturday before rain forced it to be cancelled. Its next event is on November 19.

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