Young, now 23, led police on a number of high-speed pursuits from Wallsend to Kurri Kurri and back again and then south along the M1 to Dora Creek.

He evaded two sets of spike strips, once by smashing into a concrete median strip and "bouncing off" and another by driving directly at a stationary highway patrol car. He veered onto the wrong side of the road on two of the Hunter's major highways during the busiest time of the year, reached speeds of about 195km/h and forced other motorists to "take evasive action" to avoid a collision with him.

And when the steering stopped working in his car and the smoke became too much, Young started carjacking other motorists.

The terrifying ordeal, the majority of which was witnessed firsthand by a terrified female passenger, only ceased when two semi-trailers stopped side-by-side on the M1, forming a barrier just north of the Dora Creek bridge.

Then, when cornered and with police moving in, Young reversed a car he had just stolen from a terrified motorist into a police car, causing the police car to catch on fire.

Young pleaded guilty to eight offences, including two counts of police pursuit and assault with intent to steal a motor vehicle.

Public Defender Lizzie McLaughlin told Judge Roy Ellis on Monday that the "extraordinarily serious" offending needed to be viewed against a background of Young's "profoundly dysfunctional" upbringing, which included being exposed to drug use, domestic violence and neglect from a young age.

"He was exposed to systemic and intergenerational criminality," Ms McLaughlin said. "Where going to jail, committing offences, sustaining a lifestyle by supplying drugs was all totally normalised."

Judge Ellis sentenced Young to a maximum of six years in jail, with a non-parole period of three-and-a-half years. He will be eligible for parole in May, 2022.