Lowndes blog Shocking tip not for Tassie

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.