Is it goodbye to Skaife?

If that is the case, then I will be very sad, because he is still a very talented driver and I have enjoyed working with him these past couple of years.

The reason he may have to hang up his helmet is that he is now chairman-elect of the new V8 Supercar commission which doesn't allow active drivers to be involved. Skaifey would take up his new two-year role after the Bathurst 1000 in October, so he could still race at Bathurst again in 2014, but it would be awfully difficult after two years with no racing experience.

James Moffat was a welcome addition to the top 10 in Townsville. Allan's son is doing a fantastic job in his first time as full timer in the A game. It's a huge learning curve, but we all had to start some time. His ability definitely means he deserves another year in the top level.

Dave Reynolds is also doing extremely well, having qualified third on the Sunday race at Townsville. He's developing into a great young driver with potential and talent. Tim Slade is another great racer. He got turned around but came back through the field in Townsville, which shows a lot of maturity. And Triple 8's Andrew Thompson has shown a lot of maturity in the development series after being in the main game last year.

Last week I promised I would explain some of the technical terms in motor racing during the long mid-season break. This week we'll look at trim switches and team orders.

Trim switches allow the driver to "trim" how much fuel is injected into the engine. It's a four-position switch, and teams can alter what percentage of fuel each position takes out or puts in. Depending on how lean the teams want to run the engine, they can pull out up to a maximum of 20 per cent of the fuel. However, this risks heating up the pistons and possibly melting them.

Often teams ask their drivers to run the leaner settings when they drive out to the grid, under safety car and generally any time where they aren't using full throttle and high revs. Teams can gamble to pit early under a safety car where they normally wouldn't be able to make it to the end of the race, switch to the leanest setting and try to make it to the end like james Courtney did in Abu Dhabi this year.

Team orders haven't been visible in V8 Supercars, as most teams have a clear number one and a number two driver who know their position in the team.
It's against the V8 Supercar rules for a team to tell a driver to move out the way for his team mate. But this doesn't stop team orders happening. It just means teams have to do it covertly.

In our team, we're both fighting for the championship, so our sponsors, fans and even ourselves wouldn't be happy if we drove by team orders. Fans want to see fair racing and no one manipulating the result.