Clipsal 500 a challenge

I classify this as one of the hardest races for fitness, mechanical sympathy - because we bash over all the kerbs and chicanes that we can _ and a driver's mental strength.

Most drivers get through Saturday pretty much unscathed, everyone's pretty fresh. But then to recover Saturday night, redo it all again Sunday for the same distance, same strategies _ that's when soreness comes in and drivers start to fatigue.

So it's definitely a big, big, weekend for team, driver and car.  Generally the one that comes out with a win here goes on to have a pretty successful championship. I don't know why, but it definitely starts the championship off well.

It gives the drivers a lot of confidence in surviving a street circuit like this. This one's quite a demanding track, ninety per cent of the corners are blind and it's a very challenging circuit.

The car set-up here translates to other V8 Supercar street races and we spent a lot of time at Sydney's Homebush last year trying to perfect a street circuit style of set-up. That'll put us in good setup for this weekend.

Adelaide's a tough, bumpy circuit. The driver with good car speed here is one that has confidence that the car will turn, especially in the blind corners but it also needs to ride the kerbs, needs to put its power down well. And you need to try and do all that with the least amount of effort, you want it to come easy so you don't fatigue.

It's a softer set-up than for a permanent circuit so the car rides the bumps and makes it easy on your body.  It's a tough weekend and a big team effort, strategy will play a big part this year because of fuel consumption. And if the temperature continues in the high 20s it'll be difficult fitness-wise.

There will be six to eight good, competitive cars this weekend - HRT, the FPR cars have shown to be reasonably good around here, Garry Rogers cars have been extremely quick on street circuits, Jamie will be quick and the Stone brothers have got three good, competitive cars.
I've won here before a couple of times but it's been a little while.