Browse over 9,000 car reviews

Mix of hard and soft tyres at Barbagallo

Soft tyres for Sunday's qualifying races.

Instead of two races at Barbagallo, we are going back to a three-race format that we haven't had since 2008.

What makes it more interesting is that practice on Friday and the Saturday qualifying and race will be on hard tyres, but Sunday's qualifying and two races will be on soft tyres.

But probably the most interest of the whole weekend will be the Sunday qualifying where our fastest time gives us the starting position for the first race and our second-fastest time gives us the grid position in the second race. It's going to be one of the most hectic 20-minute qualifying sessions you've ever seen. Instead of just posting one good time, which most people wind themselves up for, you have to do it twice.

We should squeeze about three good laps out of a soft tyre, if we're lucky. Plus it's a very short track which means we'll be encountering slow traffic while we're trying to set a time so we'll have to try to find some space. We'll also have to drive more consistently and look after the tyres a bit. You may find some drivers qualify well but race very average because they've taken the life out of the soft tyres that they will have to be use somewhere in one of the races.

I love the Wanneroo track and have run well there, but it is low grip and highly abrasive and should destroy soft tyres very quickly.

However, the soft tyres lasted longer than we expected in New Zealand, so it's still an unknown.

Wanneroo is Garth Tander's home track and he always goes well there, but so do the Garry Rogers cars.

I'd also be looking out for the Kelly Bros who stepped up in New Zealand and you can never discount Mark Winterbottom or Will Davison. But they all need to look out for my teammate Jamie Whincup. He had a shocker in New Zealand and every time he has a bad weekend he bounces back. Whether he wins or not, he will be on the podium.

I'm expecting a huge crowd this weekend for two reasons. First they missed out last year because their facilities weren't up to scratch. Hopefully that's all sorted out now and over the next couple of years we expect it to turn into an A grade facility.

Second is the Australian Superbikes will be racing there this weekend and that always brings in some extras who may not be all that interested in the V8s. Hopefully we can put on a good show for them and win some fans.

About 60 per cent of the drivers and team members in the V8s are bike nuts, so they'll be showing a keen interest in the bike races too.