Holden issue settling

He's a bit of a legend in our sport and it just goes to show − once a driver always a driver. Clearly he was struggling to stay away and I'm confident he will do a good job.

However, it's a bit of a concern because Triple Eight Racing and a lot of other teams have welcomed him into the pit garage and let him in on most of our information in his capacity as a commentator for Channel 7.

He's also been in our Brisbane workshop talking to our people and seeing the operation to try to get a feel for his involvement in the Car of the Future project.

Everyone has been willing to help, thinking that's his main role, but we didn't expect him to then work with one of the teams on the track. We'll have to be a bit more careful because we will now be racing against him.

Teaming up with Greg Murphy will make them real contenders at Bathurst. That's a track where you need experience and they've certainly got that. They will be a huge threat to our attempt at a historical four-peat. We really need Skaifey to be an independent commentator and V8 Supercars director.

The issue about us moving to Holden seems to be settling down now. We're not copping as much abuse from the hard-core Ford fans any more. We've done our best to educate people on why we made the move and I think a lot of people now understand why the change was inevitable.

And it looks like we'll have the same main rivals, with Garth Tander signing on again with HRT and I'm sure they'll also have Will Davison back again.

Just because next season we will also be an HRT team it doesn't mean we won't be fierce rivals. They are our main rivals now and they will continue to be next year. even though we are running the same brand of vehicle. The fans will see how fierce that rivalry is when we meet up again next weekend at Queensland Raceway. We need to get some momentum back and I will be driving just as aggressively as I did at Sandown.

Queensland Raceway was the first time last season that we weren't on the podium so we will have to turn that around.

There has been talk in pit straight lately about the championship starting with a double-header in the Middle East next year. I think commercially it's OK and it won't really affect Clipsal in Round 1, or affect the fans either. For me as a driver, the more opportunities to race in world-class circuits, the better. And I'm sure the fans won't be unhappy about more races in the season.

After all, that's the whole point of the Car of the Future exercise. If we can make the cars cheaper to run, then we can afford to do more rounds like NASCAR in the US or like footy here in Australia.

It's hard to keep the fans keen when we don't have a race for several weeks. More rounds will mean more consistency for the fans.

Lately I've been a little out of my depth posing for Billabong's Von Zipper brand. The photos are on my website and I have to say modelling is not my future career. However, I was pretty pleased they chose me because it's the first time they've used a non-surfer.