Articles by Craig Lowndes

As I recall, it was at Pukekoe in New Zealand about six years when someone - I think John Bowe - hit the wall. Then there was my famous Calder crash that red-flagged the race in 1999. But I don't think anyone can remember two red flags in the one event like we had at the weekend. That's pretty bizarre. First, let me say there is nothing wrong with the Sandown track.  It is an excellent cricuit where I've enjoyed a lot of success and it's a great track to race on and to view all the action. I think both incidents are basically the resut of driver error.  Garth Tander's crash was self-inflicted after having bumped into Paul Dumbrell. From what I've seen, I think GT took offence to PD joining the track after his off-field excursion at turn one. The tyre blowout was the same result that Shane Van Gisberg had in the closing stages of Sunday's race. If you bang doors with a car on its left-hand side, you can easily cause contact between the exhaust outlets and the rim or wheel, leading to a tyre blowout. You'd think drivers would be aware of that. I've never done that and had a tyre blowout because of contact, but I have had tyres let go because of a design fault. And you would think drivers would know there was something wrong with the tyre and slow down because they would have felt the steering pull one way.  The second incident was also driver fault. In fact, it was sheer stupidity and should not have happened. We were talking about this on Sunday night. That is an exceptionally fast corner. The cars are going about the same speed as turn eight at Adelaide which is over 245km/h. If you have contact at that point you are going to end up in the wall.  There are no problems with the track. Both incidents were driver induced. We all know what the procedures are for a red flag but because it happens so infrequently there was still a lot of confusion about what to do.  Even after the first red flag on Saturday I didn't know on Sunday whether we would reform the grid like the previous day and have a standing start or do a rolling start. When we stopped on the grid most drivers got out and some even went to the toilet.  Where I stopped was right opposite our pit bay, so I was able to go in and have a freshen up. The restart on Saturday was basically the same as the real start only a lap earlier, but the Sunday restart was quite different for me because I was right back in the pack in 19th position.  There was a lot of car contact back there especially with PD stuck in behind me. He'd started on pole and had been leading the race so he wanted to get past as soon as he could.  Our car wasn't too bad and we should have qualified up in the top 10 on the Saturday but I had troubles with traffic. The Saturday race was ok, but I didn't have much speed in the beginning and at the end I was a bit cautious about the tyres even though the car was going better the longer the race went on. On Sunday we qualified sixth, but then I got a terrible start with heaps of wheelspin.  We had better pace on Sunday in the clean air, but when I was chasing and got behind Greg Murphy it struggled to maintain balance in the turbulent air. Then I had an engine misfire at the end and fell back from Murph. I'm pretty disappointed in the weekend because I've had great success in the past at Sandown.  It's a weekend I'd like to put behind us so we can focus on Homebush. Mathematically I'm now out of the running for the championship, but at least we have the team championship sewn up now and we can all concentrate on what we have to do to get my teammate Jamie to clinch the driver's title. Our team boss, Roland Dane, was delighted with the team championship. That was one of our aims of the weekend so we can go to Homebush with one less distraction for the team. For me, my job will now be to get in front of James Courtney and stay there.  I'm not overly confident of leapfrogging Frosty into third position, but I won't be giving up just yet. There are more than 100 points between us so realistically I can only grab third if Frosty has a really bad run and I don't think that's likely to happen. He's come good in the latter half of the season. Sandown was the last of the sprint tyre for the season. We won't be using it at Homebush. That will be all control tyre. I enjoy the Dunlop sprint tyre, but I would have preferred it was used the same way we did in Tassie the weekend before with one tyre in each race rather than one tyre in one race like we had at Sandown.  That would have mixed it up a little better. The sprint tyre wore down a lot quicker at Sandown than it did in Tassie where we almost used it from start to finish.  Sandown certainly turned on the weather for us after such a soggy weekend in Tassie. It was nice and warm but I didn't use the cool suit all weekend. Those long straights at Sandown give you plenty of time to cool down.  Some did wear it at the weekend, but I just love the heat. It doesn't worry me at all. I train in the heat of Queensland to acclimatise myself. However, I'll use the cool suit for Homebush because it's a street circuit and they tend to retain heat behind those big concrete barriers.  We had reasonable cars at Homebush last year but we didn't have the results we should have because both Jaydub and I clouted walls. I hit the third last corner but two corners back from there everyone was hitting the wall.  The problem is that anything off race line is very slippery from the rubber build-up. I suppose we can't do much about that except to stay on the racing line and make the car nice car to drive and forgiving over the kerbs.  We need to go there with confidence and finish the year on a high, then refocus on next year.

But mathematically I am still a very slim chance, despite the setback last Sunday. I'm not really a betting man, but I'd still put a bet on me as a long outsider.Realistically, the bad luck I had at the weekend would now have to strike all three in front of me to have any chance. But I haven't given up all hope and will keep the pedal down until such time as it becomes a mathematical impossibility.At that point where we realise we are out of the chase, we will sit down and have a discussion about what we can do to help Jaydub win. It's a shame that such bad luck can strike after having a good run all the way from Phillip Island.After Saturday's race I had hauled back a stack of points and the car was sensational and exciting to drive on the sticky soft tyres. On Sunday it rained, but we were still running fast and it looked like Jaydub would leapfrog Courtney and I'd be only 100 points behind.But then it all started to unravel when I came out of the hairpin and pulled the gear shift back to second and the bolt and thread came straight out of the front mount.I had the adrenalin pumping because I was running second to Frosty and quite comfortable at that point. So when it all disappeared from my grasp it was a bitter disappointment. We came in and re-drilled it, tapped it and put in a helicoil. We then went back out 19 laps down, but still looking for some points.However, it seemed the incident weakened the two other mounting points and it broke again. We then parked it because we couldn't do enough laps as you have to complete 70 per cent of the race and greet the chequered flag to score points.By this stage the adrenalin had subsided and I was in a different mindset. I was still disappointed but I realised it was just one of those things that happens in racing.Then there was the unfortunate incident with Jaydub's car running low on fuel. Our team is one of the best sport teams in the whole of Australia, but we can still come unstuck with basic human error and that's what happened.It was a simple mistake of looking at a wrong graph and getting the fuel calculations wrong. It's highlighted a flaw in our procedures. Now we've spoken about it, come up with a different strategy and we won't make the same mistake again. It was possibly the most disappointing weekend we've had as a race team.Our debrief with team boss Roland Dane could have become a shouting match, but it wasn't. He's obviously not pleased and when he's like that he'll share his view of the world. He's very passionate and focussed.However, I think that the time between the end of the race and the debrief allowed him to cool down a little more, so basically Roland left it up to us to analyse it and figure it all out.There's no good dwelling on it. We have to make changes to fix what has happened and that is that.As for sorting out the gearshift problem, from what we can understand, a couple of teams have had the same problem with the sequential gearbox. It's highlighted a problem that the bolt arrangement may not be strong enough.As it's a part everyone runs, the problem needs to be sorted out as a category, not by an individual team. I didn't see the pit lane fight between Steven Richards and Rick Kelly, but I heard all about it.There's no doubt drivers get frustrated when they are baulked in qualifying, especially at Symmons Plains. It's the shortest track in our series and that means there is a lot of traffic and it's difficult to get a clean run to set a good qualifying time.I'm not sure who did what to whom first but they repaid the complement later on and two negatives never make a right.I've had situations like that where you might go and have a talk to a driver about their behaviour or conduct, but I've never got to a point where I've become physical about it. Not even after the Kelly incident at Phillip Island a couple of years ago that crippled my championship. Everyone could see what went on there and I didn't want to make the situation worse.Moving on, I'm keyed up for Sandown this weekend. This is a track I love. I've done many miles around here when I was with HRT and also working as a driving instructor so I know every inch of it.It's quite bumpy and the car needs to ride kerbs extremely well. The back straight has a kink and goes up a hill, but it's actually faster than the front straight.You grab fifth gear over that crest and you have to position the car just right or you can spear off like Jason Richards did a couple of years ago and mount the wall.It's not as critical to get a front row in qualifying as it is at some other tracks. So long as you are in the first few rows you have a good shot. My track record is good at Sandown, but Frosty will also go extremely well, so will Jamie and the HRT cars.We stayed in Melbourne rather than heading home this week and we did a ride day at Calder Park, but we didn't get a chance to take our motorcycles to Broadford like the team usually does because our truck was full of spares we might need to work on the cars.So this week has been about PR duties such as signing sessions for my book.Some people have been asking about our team's support for men's health issues with the big moustache on the front of our cars and why Jaydub and I aren't sporting mos. Well, while the team might be happy for us to support the cause, I don't think anyone reckons we'd look good with a mo.People have also been asking about my wife, Nat, and her health problems. She's feeling better and is a lot more active, but I'm not sure whether she will be able to come down for the finale in Sydney or the gala presentation night on the Monday. We'll see what the doctors say after her next cat scan early next week.

All I can say is why not?  He's in a great position as he's leading the championship and can potentially win it and he's just looking for the best deal he can beyond this year.  That's just normal for a race driver. You have to look at all your options. He's just seeing what's available and where he wants to be. There is family to think about, where he wants to live and the most important thing is that the team sponsorship is viable for the next few years. They call this the silly season for a reason. Everything changes in this sport.  I've been through it myself on several occasions, twice swapping manufacturers, so I know what drivers are going through at the moment. Silly season is something that is becoming more common for drivers.  But the most important thing is that you don't lose focus on the job ahead and JC hasn't won the championship yet. There are still 900 points up for grabs in the final three rounds, so anything can happen.  But it's not only a two-horse race with JC and my teammate Jamie Whincup. Frosty (Mark Winterbottom) and I are around 300 points behind and we haven't ruled ourselves out just yet. So while JC and Jay-dub might run conservatively for points, Frosty and I have nothing to lose and will go all out for a do-or-die victory.I'm looking forward to a return to the sprint tyres for the Tasmanian round this weekend. We ran them there last year with a lot of success and it's a circuit where you can get away with running the tyre for a long time and be competitive right to the end.  The problem for us is that JC has won all four sprint tyre races this year at Queensland Raceway and Winton. His car is obviously set up for that combination and he'll be hard to beat.  We have to qualify on the standard Dunlop tyre and then adjust the car to suit what we believe will be the gains on the sprint tyre so it's like shooting in the dark. But most teams have got their heads around it now. This circuit is really short and basically has only three corners and some kinks so you have to qualify well and stay out of trouble, stay up front and not get back in the field where you run the possibility of going a lap down. The hairpin at the end of the first straight is a major cause of carnage but also a great place to pass.  I always look for passing opportunities going into the corner, but if you can't then it's also good for the switchback. As long as you get good drive out of the corner you can maybe get them on the back straight. The hairpin seems to beach a lot of cars, so be prepared for more safety car action, but not as much as at the Gold Coast where the safety car nearly did as many laps as I did. The problem is that it takes a long time to get the cars on a tilt tray and properly clean up the track before it's safe for a re-start.  On a street circuit it might be time to look at a skyhook system like they have in F1 where they can use a crane to pluck wreckage off the circuit. Speaking of F1, I'll be glued to the TV on Sunday night for the final race to see if Mark Webber can become the first Aussie world champ since Alan Jones in 1980.  It's going to be a thrilling end to the season and this is what F1 or any motorsport category should be about. The championship should always come down to the last corner of the last round.  The V8 season this year could be like that. We certainly hope so. This weekend the Australian Superbikes are back racing at the same event as the V8s and it also looks like coming down to the last race of the year. It should be very entertaining.  I'd like to see more superbikes at V8 events. I think it's a good mix for the fans. During the week we heard that the FIA world motorsport governing body has approved up to six international and 12 Australasian events for the V8 Supercar Championship.  I doubt they will ever have six international events, but it's always good to know they have that ability. No doubt V8 boss Tony Cochrane will want it to become an international competition, but you have to be mindful of our audience which is Australian.

Every round from now until the end is do or die for me with less than 300 points separating me from James Courtney and Jamie Whincup and only three rounds to go.  I'm enjoying how close the top three are in the championship. It makes the season more exciting for the fans.If I can maintain touch with the leaders I will press all the way until the final Sunday at Homebush.  That round is another street circuit and we know what a high attrition rate they have, so don't count me out yet. Jamie only had to get a handful of points in Sydney last year and he almost threw his championship away running into the walls a couple of times.I'm looking forward to this weekend's racing in Launceston. I've won two rounds there before and had a couple of seconds two years ago. But last year we had problems with brakes.The Symmons Plains circuit is demanding on brakes because it's only 2.4km long with two really heavy brake applications about 30 seconds apart.  Also, because it's about 500m shorter than Darwin, Townsville or the Gold Coast, the key is track position. It's easy to go a lap down even if you have a bad pit stop, so you have to start with a good qualifying session and a prime grid position.There is also the big problem of lapped traffic on a short circuit and all the chaos that can create.  While I'm still focussed on these last three rounds, I'm also looking forward to next year with the 2011 V8 calendar being released this week.It was unfortunate that we couldn't fit in with Bahrain's busy international race calendar.  We've gone there for the past four years and had just started to get a good fan base among the ex-pats. They originally thought it was only going to be a one-off thing like China so they'll be disappointed. At least we still have Abu Dhabi.I was also disappointed that the expected round in Singapore has been postponed a year. Every time you go to a new circuit, especially outside of Australia, it's a great opportunity to showcase our cars and our sport.I'm still not sure whether our calendar clashes with the Australasian Safari. Apparently the Safari organisers are releasing their dates next week and are planning to move it forward to August.I'm hoping it will co-ordinate with a break in our calendar because my co-driver, Kees Weel, and I would love to go back and defend our title.Thankfully the huge mid-season break we had this year has been abandoned. I thought it was too long not only for us as race drivers, but more so for the fans who get itchy feet.It's good for the longevity of our sport that Perth is back in the calendar. It's also important for Western Australia to be included to make it a truly national sport. We have a great following over there.I can't wait to see the modifications they plan to do to the circuit.  The same goes for Ipswich which seems to be firmed up on the calendar for the next few years.They are doing some resurfacing at Christmas time. It would be good if they could not only smooth it out but also take the opportunity to extend it.My teammate and I are not only competing on the track but also on the bookshelves.  Jamie's new book, "My Championship Year" is written in personal diary style.I had a similar title, but his came out first so we changed mine to "Inside Line" which is a look inside a year around the team and the car.  It was a great opportunity to reflect and put pen to paper.Motorsport journalist Mark Fogarty came up to the farm at Kilcoy about four times during the year and we had endless conversations on the phone and Skype about it, so it was fairly time consuming.  Everything was in my brain and we just had to get it down on paper.There are a lot of V8 Supercar books out at the moment including Mark Skaife's and a new book about Peter Brock's early career.  I think it's a great demonstration of the sport's health and depth of interest in our sport that so many books can be on the market at the same time.

The issue at the Gold Coast with Garth Tander getting a black flag and then having that decision reversed is bad for our sport. There is no consistency. There were bits of car falling off all over the lap and I ran over his headlight, yet I've seen black flags issued to cars with bumpers hanging but not falling off. We've all had black flags before and done the drive-through no matter what we thought, but to stay out on the track when there are bits of car flying off everywhere while you argue the point is not right. As for the James Courtney black flag, I didn't see his restart, but I understand there were several issues with erratic braking and accelerating and his distance behind the safety car. There are rules and you simply have to abide by them or pay the penalty. For me, it was a bit of and up-and-down weekend with a second on Saturday and ninth on Sunday, ending up on virtually the same points margin from the leaders as before I started. But we're still in third and still in the hunt for the title because, as the weekend shows, anything can happen in this sport. Certainly anything can and will happen on street circuits and we still have the streets of Sydney to race in the finale, so who knows? My teammate Jamie (Whincup) almost threw it all away in Sydney last year. Most importantly we have come away from the weekend virtually unscathed except for a few Kiwi nibbles in the sides and back of Jamie's car from his dramatic duel with Cheeseburger (Shane Van Gisbergen) and a smack in the rear of our car from (Warren) Luff on pit entry. That hit on my co-driver Andy Priaulx ruined our chances in the Sunday race as it put our rear wing out of alignment and reduced the downforce which chewed up our rear tyres. It was a shame as we were running in third at the time and ended up ninth. The Sunday race was just so unpredictable. Who would have thought there would be six safety car periods with five in the first half? At one stage we had done more laps under safety car conditions than race conditions. The safety car driver almost drove further than the co-drivers. It really played havoc with our strategy and in the end Andy drove more laps than me. Not that his driving caused us any problems. He certainly deserved his award for the best international driver. Andy did a fantastic job and I'm sure our team principal Roland Dane would have him back next year. His whole approach to the event was level headed and he kept improving from the moment he got in to test the car at Queensland Raceway.Actually, I think that is one of the reasons for all the carnage on the Sunday the international drivers got braver and more aggressive as they started to learn the track and understand the cars. Thankfully Andy kept his nose clean, kept up the pace and brought it home clean. I was glad to see the shortened track and newly resurfaced sections didn't break up. The only bit I recall breaking up was at the back of the kerb in the fast chicane on the beach straight. I also like the new hairpin fourth corner which provides an extra passing opportunity. With the shorter layout, you really had to keep your wits about you and concentrate the whole time as there is nowhere to relax or take a breather. Also, because it's so short, it is easy to go a lap down which means lapped traffic fights very aggressively not to be overtaken, making it difficult to deal with backmarkers. In all, I think they've done a good job with the layout. After all, with a street circuit you have to work around the streets that are already there. I believe the State Government and V8 Supercars Australia have a three-year contract, but let's hope the Gold Coast event continues for longer than that. V8 boss Tony Cochrane is very confident it will stay. I think the Gold Coast race is definitely justified as a V8-only event judging by the 170,000 people it attracted over the three days. I don't think there is too much V8 racing in Queensland. Two of the three events are street circuits at opposite ends of a very large state. Plus we still need a permanent facility in southeast Queensland as a test track for all the teams based here. There has been some talk about another permanent track in southeast Queensland. Being a selfish race driver, the more tracks the better. And I'm sure our economy could support another permanent track. After all, QR and Lakeside are almost fully booked all year with motorsport, driver training and other private and corporate activities. Too many tracks are closing down, yet there is still a need for permanent tracks to provide a safe environment for speed-related issues and driver training. If another track is built it would be advisable to have people from open wheelers, karts and bikes to be involved in the design so it suits all disciplines, not just V8s.

But I also felt a little empty not having my wife Nat and my kids, Levi and Chilli, there.  The kids came along the previous three or four years and it's been a long time since Nat hasn't been trackside at Bathurst. She couldn't make it this year because she's still convalescing after her spleen problems. So it was sort of an empty feeling in a sense.  It would have been nice to celebrate with the family, but I spoke to them straight afterwards. Nat was very proud and the kids were very happy that I said hello to them on the podium. With media commitments on the Monday and then floods cutting me off from the farm on the Tuesday, it was a long time before I got to share the moment with the whole family in person. Everyone now wants to know if Mark (Skaife) and I will be back together again for the enduros next year.  The short answer is I don't know. I'd love to be able to have the opportunity to have him back, but I'll sit down with our team principal Roland (Dane) this week and we'll analyse the event and see where we're positioned. Mark was happy with the team atmosphere, how we work and our chemistry driving together, so I'm sure he would like to come back.  Of course I'll never catch up to his Bathurst win record as long as we're driving together so he'd be quite happy with that scenario, too. Mark was pretty sore after the race with his popped rib.  I didn't know I'd be driving all the way to the chequered flag when I got into the car for what was ultimately the final stint. My race engineer, Jeromy (Moore), asked me whether I was still comfortable and I said I was. We had talked about it as a possibility and I was happy to do a long stint, but I didn't realise the full reasoning. Meanwhile, Mark was getting his back worked on by our team physio, Chris Brady.  Mark said it happened as he was going through the Dipper and it was like someone had stabbed him in the back. It took his breath away. Fortunately it was at the end of his stint and he was able to hang on.  His ribs are still a little sore, but he'll be fine. I felt great in the car right up to the end and it was only later when I was sitting in the press conference and the adrenalin was starting to drain away that the aches and pains came out. But I pulled up better than I expected for having done 79 laps straight. Toward the end of the race we had a prolonged dice with Bezzy (David Besnard), but we weren't really trying to get past.  We caught up and I had a couple of good attacks, but he was defending quite hard so we thought we'd sit back and conserve fuel for a while. It was still early enough in the race and we didn't have anyone catching us.  I radioed Jeromy to say the car had good pace but the balance was changing in the disturbed air behind Bezzy. We decided to sit and wait and see if he burnt his tyres up or whether we could leapfrog him in a pit stop.  But then he ran wide in turn one and I got by cleanly. We were worried all race about fuel consumption but Jeromy calculated it spot on. There was only enough petrol left in the tank at the end for about another half a lap. On the podium I dropped the winner's champagne to Jason Briggs in the crew for everyone to share around.  But we didn't do much celebrating at the track. We usually save that up until dinner that night with all the team from catering to merchandising. I must say I've very rarely seen Roland so choked up as he was at the dinner.  People were only then starting to realise what we had achieved as team. I've since heard about the complaints on Twitter over Seven's delayed coverage of the event and I must say I agree.  People need to remember there is always a slight delay, but 20-odd minutes was excessive. In these days of instant communication with Twitter, Facebook and mobile phones it is more evident to the fans if there is a delay.  I understand the commercial realities, but Seven could easily have made up the time during safety car periods. The other important thing for me about Bathurst was that the result jumped me up from sixth to third in the standings.  Drivers always talk about being in or out of the championship after Bathurst and I can declare we are definitely back in the hunt with less than 300 points separating the top four. Now my attention is turning to the Gold Coast 600 where Mark returns to the commentary box and I share a drive with touring car legend Andy Priaulx.  We have a rookie day next Wednesday at Queensland Raceway, but Andy's hardly a rookie having been a three times world touring car champion and having driven at Bathurst before. His background makes him perhaps the best suited of the international drivers to making the transition to a V8 Supercar.

But one thing is for sure. It's going to be a slightly slower race this year because teams aren't allowed to have their two main drivers in the same car. That should also mean lower fuel economy which will have an influence on several aspects of race strategy such as pit stops and driver changes. We still don't have a firm strategy on whether Skaifey or I will start the race or on when we have driver changes. But unless you are coming in for a splash and dash I think we will change drivers every time we pit.  Even that could change as we go into the weekend and have a better understanding of the fuel consumption. I suppose it's been a whirlwind few weeks with Phillip Island and then the Australasian Safari, but I feel mentally and physically fit for the challenge ahead.  I think it's kept my mind occupied and fresh. Skaifey hasn't had the best preparation having caught the flu in Melbourne last week. But he was still present at our test day last week and he's feeling much better now. In fact, he's fitter than he's ever been. It looks like he's done some serious work since I last saw him.  I think our victory at Phillip Island has also given him a mental boost. He's a lot more comfortable with the team and the car now and is right up to speed. The interesting thing is that if we win, I won't be able to close the overall victory tally on him. He's got five and I've got four and we both have eight podiums each. Not that it bothers me.  I don't look at the stats a great deal. That's for history buffs.  But there is one thing you can learn from the record books: pole position isn't as important as people make out. Sure it's great for your confidence and for the sponsors to go down in the history books, but out of 50 Bathurst endurance races, only 11 winners have started from pole. My last three victories with Jamie (Whincup) came from the third row of the grid and when I won with Murph in 1996 I was second on the grid.  I think it's more important to be in the first few rows of the top 10 so you get away cleanly and stay out of trouble.  Your first few driving stints in the car are about looking after things.  I remember racing with Skaifey at Bathurst over 10 years ago and we were leading the race by 40 seconds when we had a tyre explode. It's important while you're out there doing your 30-odd-lap stint to take time to relax.  For me it's one of those circuits where you get some chances to relax like coming down Conrod Straight or going up Mountain Straight. All you are doing is pulling gears, keeping your foot flat on the throttle and holding the steering wheel straight.  You teach yourself to relax at those points of the circuits. From about lap 100 you start preparing to get in a position to push for the lead or top three positions with 30 laps to go.  Although it's a 161-lap endurance race, it's basically a long drawn-out prelude to a 30-lap sprint. Look after your car and your fuel consumption and it will pay dividends.  This is our grand final. It's the one we want to win all year.Everything else takes second place to this one.

The only time I've ever had to come back for a race meeting again was at Lakeside in 1996 when it got flooded.  While a photo-finish after 161 laps of Mt Panorama is a possibility, I can't see it happening. Anyway, I'm sure the digital cameras can separate the slimmest of margins. I usually sit down and watch the AFL final, but of course at the time I was behind the wheel of the Holden Colorado on the last couple of stages of the Australasian Safari. However, I managed to catch the last couple of exciting minutes of the game. I believe it's only the third tie in AFL history. Maybe they did it just so I could watch the full game this weekend! I normally support Essendon, but I'll back St Kilda as the underdogs and in the NRL I go for the Broncos, so I'll back St George on the Wayne Bennett factor.  As for the safari, what a great way to kick off my off-road career than with a win. It was a long week, but it was quite relaxing.  There is none of the tension of a V8 race where you race side by side with other competitors. You are just racing yourself and the clock. I feel great and have no physical or mental tiredness. In fact, I would have loved for the safari to continue. It was a great experience travelling through some pretty interesting country. I said I'd like to do other rallies, maybe even the Dakar, but whether I come back here again next year depends on a couple of things such as whether it fits into the V8 calendar again. The calendar is usually released at Phillip Island, but it's been held back until Bathurst this year.  If the timing is right and my co-driver Kees (Weel) invites me again, I'd be happy to re-run the safari. After all, they change the route every year so it will be different scenery. It was one of the great wins in my career, like my first kart race or Formula Ford victory.  I dedicated the win to my mentor, Peter Brock, as he was passionate about this race and he was my inspiration to compete. Unfortunately, he never had the opportunity to win it, so I dedicate my win to him. My wife Nat was delighted with the result, but probably more happy that I finished in one piece.  After several weeks on the road, it's been great to be back home and spend some time with Nat and the kids in the last week of the school holidays. However, there's no rest for the wicked as they say, so we still had to do a test day at Queensland Raceway on Wednesday.  We're still not 100 per cent sure of our strategy for Bathurst, so Mark (Skaife) put in some practice starts just in case he's called on to start the race again like at Phillip Island. While I was in Western Australia our team was busy reworking the oil cooler on both cars to make them a bit more bullet-proof after Jamie's (Whincup) problems at the Island.  Test day was basically about running in the race gear for Bathurst and checking the oil coolers. We ran about 100km then changed everything from the engine back: bellhousing, gearboxes, tailshafts, complete rear ends. Also front uprights, brakes etc so we know it all works when we bolt all that stuff into the car on Saturday night for the big race. It's very time consuming, but something we've always done to make sure we have no hiccups at Bathurst.  Other than that, there was just the usual pitstop practice for a couple of hours. We needed to get the driver change a bit quicker so we aren't compromised on our strategy if we want to short fill. We didn't test anything major, it was just more about getting Skaifey more laps and getting our fuel consumption versus lap times closer to each other. Skaifey has been close in terms of lap times, but we just need to get him to do it more efficiently so we don't have to sit in pit lane for as long filling up.  I fly out on Monday for Sydney and the long PR haul to Bathurst. Unfortunately, I won't be caravanning with the family down to Bathurst like I have been in recent years because Nat needs rest for her spleen condition.

It's physically and mentally challenging and there have been times when I've asked my co-driver, Kees Weel, when will it all end.  But I've also enjoyed it and would like to do more of this sort of driving in the future. You're in the vehicle a lot longer and racing for a lot longer, but it's exciting.  I'm writing this a few days before you are reading this because the areas we are in are quite remote and this is a rare opportunity to communicate with the outside world. At this stage, I don't know where we'll finish, but we're up at the pointy end and not pushing too hard as anything can happen.  I've seen people like Tony Quinn, an accomplished circuit racer, sidelined by something as simple as a ruptured fuel tank. You can't go hard all the time; you have to pace yourself and drive wisely and hope the luck falls your way.  It's like nothing I've ever done before. It's like fronting up for a Bathurst race every day.  Speaking of Bathurst, even though I'm out in the bush of Western Australia focussing on the dirt road ahead, I'm also focussing on Mt Panorama in a couple of weeks. People have been asking me if Skaifey will start like he did at Phillip Island.  That's yet to be decided. Skaifey bravely took on the starting duties at the Island even though he wasn't used to our clutch set-up and had a bad start in his sprint race.  But most teams ran with their B driver first so they could be assured of getting their minimum laps completed and because there was only one driver change. That won't be the case at Bathurst. We'll have several driver changes, so Skaifey won't necessarily start the race.  At the moment the plan is for me to start, but who knows what the situation will be on the day? There are a lot of things to consider. If Mark is comfortable and doing better lap times than me, then I'm happy to give him the responsibility. He did a fantastic job at Phillip Island, attacking right from the start. In fact, Skaifey has been dead serious all year about these endurance races and is 110 per cent focussed on Bathurst.  He'd love to get his sixth victory and I'd love my fifth. He's really pumped and he's been working extremely hard on his fitness.  As he's become more familiar with the car, the team and our mentality he has really fitted in. His hunger and keenness to do well has also really grown. Next year our team gets a boost with Williams Formula 1 engineer John Russell joining us as the director of engineering and production.  His role will be to improve the reliability of our race cars.  I've worked with him before with FPR and he's a fantastic man with great strength and talent. A lot of people might criticise him from his FPR days, but the position he was in was not the correct one. Our team principal, Roland Dane, is an astute person who will make sure John's new role brings a great deal of depth and strength to our team. Before I started on the safari, I became involved with Suncorp Insurance to promote road safety over the school holidays.  It's something that I'm really interested and enthusiastic about, just like Brocky was. The idea is to tell people holiday road safety is about more than just not speeding and having plenty of rest.  It's also about things like packing your car correctly and knowing how to tow. We tow our caravan around the country to race events and we're really into camping, but you have to know what you are doing or it can be a dangerous recipe for disaster. I'm hoping that my wife, Nat, will be well enough for us to again take the caravan to Bathurst. It helps me relax if I know I can go back to the caravan and the family at the end of each day's racing.    

It would be in my top four or five wins and from the look on Skaifey's face after the race it was one of his favourite victories, too.  Skaifey surprised a lot of people. They didn't realise just how committed and keen he was. He hasn't changed his intensity since he was racing full time. He absolutely pestered our race engineer (Jeromy Moore) wanting to know every little detail of the weekend.  It's been 10 years between drinks with Skaifey and I'm absolutely delighted for him. He still has a lot to contribute to the sport, not just on the Car of the Future project or as a commentator, but as a driver.  The win was also a blessed relief for me after a long dry spell that goes back to Perth last year. I've now jumped from sixth to fourth in the championship and boosted my chances, but we still have two long distance races to go at Bathurst and the Gold Coast 600 and these are always a mixed bag. You can have great performances like last weekend or it can have a big impact like Jamie (Whincup) had at the Gold Coast last year.  He was devastated that weekend and I don't think I've seen him so upset until last Sunday. He's a great sport and he congratulated us, but you could see the disappointment and devastation on his face when I first walked up to him after the race.  They had put themselves in a great position and there's no doubt we were looking at a one-two finish. I want to get to things cleared up. I was not angry or frustrated when I was behind Jamie and there were no team orders.  At that point of the race our car was better, but with 31 laps to go we had to save fuel and conserve our tyres as they had dropped consistency early in the day and we weren't sure how they would last toward the end of the race. Then we noticed Jason Richards had closed the gap on us and I wanted to get going with the job. When Jamie made that braking mistake at Honda corner it opened the door. Our team principal Roland was dead keen on a 1-2 all weekend but there were no team orders. He always wants us to race and race fairly, but not end up in the gravel trap. So I got out in front and put my head down for consistent lap times, still looking after fuel and tyres, then mechanical problems struck JW.  At the end of the day we had a dream run from when we rolled the car out of the transporter on Thursday to the final lap on Sunday. We both commented from the start that it was an easy car to drive, very forgiving and we had a lot of confidence that we'd have a good weekend.  I didn't have much time to celebrate. After the race I helped pack up the transporter, had a team chat, thanked everyone and as soon as the back door was closed I drove off with some of the team to Broadford where we had a track day on our bikes the next day. RD whimped out because there was going to be a 90 per cent chance of rain but it turned into one of the best days with blue skies and no rain. It just topped off a great weekend.  Superbike rider Ben Henry came along and gave me a hand with setting up my Suzuki and he took it for a ride. The beauty was that his leathers and helmet look a lot like mine so I hibernated for about 15 minutes and everyone thought it was me out there setting scorching laps. Yesterday (THURSDAY) I flew over here to Perth for the start of the Australasian Safari and today we have the official launch then a 300km transport stage to start for the prologue.  It's my first time off bitumen and I'm feeling a bit nervous - no fear - just excitement. I'm not really looking for a victory or anything but just to complete it and if you do that you will be right up there anyway.  It will be the first time in a long time that I have gone into an event with so little testing, information or understanding about a car or the road or track. It's really going into the unknown. I'll just have to be sensible and smart and as the race goes on I should become more familiar with the car and terrain.  My co-driver Kees (Weel) was constantly in touch over the weekend to make sure I didn't wear myself out. Everyone is concerned about me wearing myself out. First there was the 500 to get through, then the bike day at Broadford. Well, I've ticked those boxes. Now I've got to get through the Safari and then on to Bathurst.