Bathurst similar to Safari

FIRST thing everyone wanted to know after I rolled the Colorado on its side in the Australasian Safari was whether I would be ok for Bathurst next week. Thanks for your concern, but my navigator (John Panozzo) and I are fine. It was a gentle roll at slow speed. Disappointing for my Safari bid as I was well in front, but we weren't at all hurt. Our pride was dinted and so was the car. With some luck I can salvage a podium by the finish on Friday night depending on the time penalty we are given.

There are many similarities between the Bathurst 1000 and the Australasian Safari. Both are endurance events where you have to be patient, resist the urge to race too early and hope the attrition rate happens to others.

Even the wildlife is the same, although there is a lot more of it over here in Western Australia this year. Many will recall the run-in I had with a kangaroo at Bathurst a few years back and the safety car period we had at Phillip Island a couple of weekends ago when wild geese crossed the track. Thankfully, the kangaroo problem at Bathurst has been eased in recent years with the employment of special roo-shooers to clear the track.

The main difference between Bathurst and the Safari is that you don't get lost or take a wrong turn at Mt Panorama.

We've got ourselves lost and taken wrong turns quite a few times in the Safari, but nothing major. Despite the roll, I'm really enjoying myself, enjoying the endurance and hoping to one day head over to South America to do the Dakar Rally like my mentor, Peter Brock, had been planning to do in a specially modified Holden Adventra.

This Safari has also been a good opportunity for me to concentrate on something other than Bathurst which is my key focus of the whole year. Even so, I can't help thinking about it, especially with the team having its test day at Queensland Raceway yesterday. With me not there, it has given my co-driver, Mark Skaife, plenty of valuable seat time just a week out from the big event.

Meanwhile, my teammate, Jamie Whincup, and his co-driver, Andrew Thompson, also made last-minute adjustments for Bathurst. Jamie is very happy with his co-driver who did such a fantastic job at Phillip Island.

All year Andrew's been groomed for this part of the year and he delivered. In fact, his start was so good, the stewards looked into it to see if he'd jumped the start but found he just had the best reactions of the entire field. With such rapid responses to the starting lights, he should be a drag racer.

Another young gun who performed well at the last round was Garth Tander's co-driver Nick Percat. Even though he stalled at the start line and had to go to the back of the field, he settled in and clawed his way back. I can understand their frustration at being sent to the back of the field when the car proved unable to start on its own.

After the massive fire in the starting grid crash at Darwin involving Steve Owen and Karl Reindler, the officials are mindful of the problem of stalling on the grid. The main focus is a safe start and having a car on the front row with a major problem was a recipe for disaster. What the stewards did was perfect and it's in the rules. I'm sure he was fuming in his helmet but Nick drove a very mature race and got them right back into the mix. I wouldn't discount them to be a major force at next week's event.