Victory at Mt Panorama

But I also felt a little empty not having my wife Nat and my kids, Levi and Chilli, there.  The kids came along the previous three or four years and it's been a long time since Nat hasn't been trackside at Bathurst. She couldn't make it this year because she's still convalescing after her spleen problems.

So it was sort of an empty feeling in a sense.  It would have been nice to celebrate with the family, but I spoke to them straight afterwards. Nat was very proud and the kids were very happy that I said hello to them on the podium.

Everyone now wants to know if Mark (Skaife) and I will be back together again for the enduros next year.  The short answer is I don't know.

I'd love to be able to have the opportunity to have him back, but I'll sit down with our team principal Roland (Dane) this week and we'll analyse the event and see where we're positioned.

Mark was happy with the team atmosphere, how we work and our chemistry driving together, so I'm sure he would like to come back.  Of course I'll never catch up to his Bathurst win record as long as we're driving together so he'd be quite happy with that scenario, too.

Mark was pretty sore after the race with his popped rib.  I didn't know I'd be driving all the way to the chequered flag when I got into the car for what was ultimately the final stint.

My race engineer, Jeromy (Moore), asked me whether I was still comfortable and I said I was. We had talked about it as a possibility and I was happy to do a long stint, but I didn't realise the full reasoning.

Meanwhile, Mark was getting his back worked on by our team physio, Chris Brady.  Mark said it happened as he was going through the Dipper and it was like someone had stabbed him in the back. It took his breath away.

Fortunately it was at the end of his stint and he was able to hang on.  His ribs are still a little sore, but he'll be fine.

I felt great in the car right up to the end and it was only later when I was sitting in the press conference and the adrenalin was starting to drain away that the aches and pains came out. But I pulled up better than I expected for having done 79 laps straight.

Toward the end of the race we had a prolonged dice with Bezzy (David Besnard), but we weren't really trying to get past.  We caught up and I had a couple of good attacks, but he was defending quite hard so we thought we'd sit back and conserve fuel for a while.

It was still early enough in the race and we didn't have anyone catching us.  I radioed Jeromy to say the car had good pace but the balance was changing in the disturbed air behind Bezzy.

We decided to sit and wait and see if he burnt his tyres up or whether we could leapfrog him in a pit stop.  But then he ran wide in turn one and I got by cleanly.

We were worried all race about fuel consumption but Jeromy calculated it spot on. There was only enough petrol left in the tank at the end for about another half a lap.

On the podium I dropped the winner's champagne to Jason Briggs in the crew for everyone to share around.  But we didn't do much celebrating at the track. We usually save that up until dinner that night with all the team from catering to merchandising.

I must say I've very rarely seen Roland so choked up as he was at the dinner.  People were only then starting to realise what we had achieved as team.

I've since heard about the complaints on Twitter over Seven's delayed coverage of the event and I must say I agree.  People need to remember there is always a slight delay, but 20-odd minutes was excessive.

In these days of instant communication with Twitter, Facebook and mobile phones it is more evident to the fans if there is a delay.  I understand the commercial realities, but Seven could easily have made up the time during safety car periods.

The other important thing for me about Bathurst was that the result jumped me up from sixth to third in the standings.  Drivers always talk about being in or out of the championship after Bathurst and I can declare we are definitely back in the hunt with less than 300 points separating the top four.

Now my attention is turning to the Gold Coast 600 where Mark returns to the commentary box and I share a drive with touring car legend Andy Priaulx.  We have a rookie day next Wednesday at Queensland Raceway, but Andy's hardly a rookie having been a three times world touring car champion and having driven at Bathurst before.

His background makes him perhaps the best suited of the international drivers to making the transition to a V8 Supercar.