No team orders at Triple 8

Sunday's race was probably the first time I've had a battle with my teammate, Jamie Whincup, and it was gloves off, serious, on-the-limit racing with no holds barred. There were more nerves in the garage than between us, though.

At the beginning of our battle we were aware of fuel and tyre wear, but with about 15 laps to go I put more pressure on and Jamie responded. In the last five laps we were both pretty well tapped out and had nothing left in either the cars or us.

Jamie had track position and cleaner air and was able to make it work for him. I got past a couple of times but I couldn't make it stick because there was nothing left in the tyres and he still had enough grip left to make the switchback and drive out of the corners. It's a difficult circuit to make a pass without losing it on the next corner and it's even harder when you have little grip left.

Our team principal, Roland Dane, has always said he is happy for us to race hard and fast and fair with no team orders. That's what the fans got on the weekend and the result was pretty spectacular racing.

We gave each other racing room, no doubt about that, because the ultimate sin is we both end up with a DNF. The only pit communication I got was to bring the car home. I don't think there are team orders among a lot of the other teams, either.

The FPR drivers are in contention for the championship like us, so you won't see any team orders there. Also, the SBR drivers are very passionate, DJR drivers always push to the finish and the HRT drivers just want to win.

Our sport is the healthiest it has been in a long time and a lack of team orders is instrumental. I had a few issues over the weekend which have to be sorted out. We had the pit stacking problem again and I'd love to see if there is some other option as it hurt me enormously on the Saturday pushing me back from third to 20th. Thankfully I got back to fifth, but it was a big drive.

The other issue was when I accidentally hit the limiter which prevents the engine from going over 4000 revs. The button is on the bottom right of the steering wheel and out of the way, but it still has to be accessible so you don't miss it when you go into the pits.

I accidentally hit it earlier in the lap and hadn't noticed the alarm. It didn't activate until the revs dropped below 4000rpm when I slowed in the corner. We either have to shield the button better to make it foolproof - although we don't want it too difficult to activate - or we need a more prominent alarm light on the dash.

It didn't hurt me too much, but it's one of those little glitches we have to sort out before it does have a big impact. Our new Premier Campbell Newman came to our pits at the weekend and seemed very enthusiastic about the event and happy with the crowd attendance.

He's been a big team fan since he officially opened our new garage, but I didn't get a chance to talk to him about his government's future support for the Townsville and Gold Coast rounds. I suppose it's difficult to have two races in any state with government support, but I think the crowd numbers speak for themselves.
 

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