The Gold Coast 600

There is not only the impact on the race because of the potential for international drivers not competing through injury or other matters, but also the emotional impact on drivers.

I didn't know Dan personally, but we race drivers have a bond of understanding and when there is a death it hits everyone. I've always watched and admired oval racing, but the speeds they travel at any contact will result in a major crash.

Changes to driver pairings aside, the Gold Coast weekend always throws up a couple of unexpected season-changing variables. There's the fact that it's a street circuit where even a minor mistake can mean hitting a concrete wall and ending your weekend.

There is also the variable of having international drivers as our co-drivers. They are all very talented racers, but they don't all know the circuit as well as the full-time drivers and they certainly aren't as familiar with the cars and the rules as we are.

My co-driver will again be three-time world champion touring car driver Andy Priaulx who I raced with last year to second place on the Saturday, chasing down Garth Tander like we did at Bathurst last week.

On the Sunday Andy got hit up the rear end coming into the pits and we finished 10th. Andy adapted to our cars really quickly last year and came to grips with the circuit very fast. I've been twittering and talking to him over the past year and he's eager to have another go.

I think we've got the two best international drivers with Sebastien Bourdais as Jamie Whincup's co-driver. He knows the circuit from his Indy experience and did a great job last year for DJR. It's no coincidence we have him this year with Adrian Burgess and other DJR people now on our team.

For me the biggest challengers at the Gold Coast will be Jamie and Shane van Gisbergen. I recall that pair having a great duel toward the end of the Sunday race last year and it should be on again this time.

Jamie, of course, will be trying to get the series lead back from me, but I think we've both got too much distance on Shane in third for him to be a championship threat unless, of course, Jamie and I have a few DNFs.

If you look at the remaining four rounds, it's almost a 50-50 split in past results between Jamie and me. He has had a good run in recent years at the Gold Coast and Sydney while I've enjoyed a lot of success at Sandown and Symmons Plains.

It looks like the series is coming down to a last-race showdown on the streets of Sydney and with Jamie's reputation there, I need to get out further in front. That starts with a good result at the Gold Coast, so the fans will see plenty of action on the streets of Surfers Paradise this year. Jamie and I won't be holding anything back.

I'm still hearing a lot of talk about the exciting finish at Bathurst last week. It was the closest in race history and was just what the fans wanted.

The race was broadcast live on the American Speed TV channel and talking to the commentators that came out - Darryll Waltrip and Mike Joy - they were very complimentary of our category and very excited about the finish. They were also amazed that we still continue to race in the wet weather.

The Great Race was a tremendous advertisement for our category, although there were a few blemishes. The first was the supposed wet tyre shortage, but I believe that was blown out of all proportion. Dunlop had a solution for the issue and were on top of it very quickly.

Another incident was the deteriorating track condition and kerbing with the safety car having to come out while the track was cleaned uip. There is talk of resurfacing again which I think would be great, although not so great for my lap record.

All tracks suffer from wear and tear and we don't know how well they will stand up to racing until we are actually out there. Another incident was the yellow shirt on Conrod Straught causing driver confusion that it was a yellow caution fag.

The only thing I saw was a yellow flag posted on the fence and it took me two laps to work out it was a fan's flag not a marshall. Anything that stands out like that piques our curiosity and at 300km/h it's very hard to be sure of what you are seeing.

The big incident was the David Besnard crash and fire. I got to his car as they were distinguishing the flames. I was horrifed to see the flames but pleased to see him get out of the car. Our chief engineer, Ludo Lacrois, came up with a fix to bursting fuel tanks after the fiery grid crash at Perth earlier this year.

Given that we have to race in these cars for the rest of this year and the next before the Car of the Future in 2013 with much safer fuel tanks, I think the other teams should look at making Ludo's changes for safety's sake.