New year, new line-up

It was the first event for our new line-up with Dane down the back of the pits and former DJR guy Adrian Burgess up front calling the shots with our race engineers.  The boys have commented that they've now got two voices calling out at them.

I think the new line-up went quite well.  Roland is there to see that the team is running at the level he wants and I didn't see him too displeased at the end of the day; bar the race results, of course.  He can be quite vocal at times, but I think Adrian took it all in his stride.

Adrian was calm and made good, collective decisions with the engineers. I think he knows just what to do to make it all work.  Three of our team have been over in Germany at the Sachs factory checking out developments in shock absorbers and clutches that we use and distribute.

There was my race engineer Jeromy, Adam who works on our suspension and Neil who does our customer cars.  It was helpful having face-to-face meetings with the engineers instead of having to deal with issues via emails and pone.

It was also handy for them to be able to explain to their engineers about our unique style of race car with its weight and horespower configuration. 

It's quite different compared with lightweight European race cars as I found out when I raced the Audi R8 in the Bathurst 12-Hour.  One of the key elements is the Sachs clutch we use.

I haven't had any issues with it, but our heavy race cars make it difficult to get them off the line so the clutch has to be tailored to those demands.  I see a recent survey says that more than of all Aussie motorists flash their lights to warn oncoming drivers of radar traps.

That's something we see quite often out in the country, usually warning of speed cameras rather than police hand-held radar guns.

I don't disagree with the practice, but I don't encourage it either. People who habitually speed should be caught.  But warning people of a camera serves to make drivers more alert and pay attention.

I think it's particularly helpful in the country where drivers can lose concentration on a boring stretch of road and not realise they have drifted over the speed limit.

I'm taking the family off to the beach for some fishing and a bit of a last-minute vacation before the season starts in earnest in Adelaide later this month.  I'm not much ofa fisherman, but it's going to be the last time I get a chance to relax before a busy year ahead with V8 Supercars and the Australasian Safari.

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