Motorsports

There is not only the impact on the race because of the potential for international drivers not competing through injury or other matters, but also the emotional impact on drivers. I didn't know Dan personally, but we race drivers have a bond of understanding and when there is a death it hits everyone. I've always watched and admired oval racing, but the speeds they travel at any contact will result in a major crash. Changes to driver pairings aside, the Gold Coast weekend always throws up a couple of unexpected season-changing variables. There's the fact that it's a street circuit where even a minor mistake can mean hitting a concrete wall and ending your weekend. There is also the variable of having international drivers as our co-drivers. They are all very talented racers, but they don't all know the circuit as well as the full-time drivers and they certainly aren't as familiar with the cars and the rules as we are. My co-driver will again be three-time world champion touring car driver Andy Priaulx who I raced with last year to second place on the Saturday, chasing down Garth Tander like we did at Bathurst last week. On the Sunday Andy got hit up the rear end coming into the pits and we finished 10th. Andy adapted to our cars really quickly last year and came to grips with the circuit very fast. I've been twittering and talking to him over the past year and he's eager to have another go. I think we've got the two best international drivers with Sebastien Bourdais as Jamie Whincup's co-driver. He knows the circuit from his Indy experience and did a great job last year for DJR. It's no coincidence we have him this year with Adrian Burgess and other DJR people now on our team. For me the biggest challengers at the Gold Coast will be Jamie and Shane van Gisbergen. I recall that pair having a great duel toward the end of the Sunday race last year and it should be on again this time. Jamie, of course, will be trying to get the series lead back from me, but I think we've both got too much distance on Shane in third for him to be a championship threat unless, of course, Jamie and I have a few DNFs. If you look at the remaining four rounds, it's almost a 50-50 split in past results between Jamie and me. He has had a good run in recent years at the Gold Coast and Sydney while I've enjoyed a lot of success at Sandown and Symmons Plains. It looks like the series is coming down to a last-race showdown on the streets of Sydney and with Jamie's reputation there, I need to get out further in front. That starts with a good result at the Gold Coast, so the fans will see plenty of action on the streets of Surfers Paradise this year. Jamie and I won't be holding anything back. I'm still hearing a lot of talk about the exciting finish at Bathurst last week. It was the closest in race history and was just what the fans wanted. The race was broadcast live on the American Speed TV channel and talking to the commentators that came out - Darryll Waltrip and Mike Joy - they were very complimentary of our category and very excited about the finish. They were also amazed that we still continue to race in the wet weather. The Great Race was a tremendous advertisement for our category, although there were a few blemishes. The first was the supposed wet tyre shortage, but I believe that was blown out of all proportion. Dunlop had a solution for the issue and were on top of it very quickly. Another incident was the deteriorating track condition and kerbing with the safety car having to come out while the track was cleaned uip. There is talk of resurfacing again which I think would be great, although not so great for my lap record. All tracks suffer from wear and tear and we don't know how well they will stand up to racing until we are actually out there. Another incident was the yellow shirt on Conrod Straught causing driver confusion that it was a yellow caution fag. The only thing I saw was a yellow flag posted on the fence and it took me two laps to work out it was a fan's flag not a marshall. Anything that stands out like that piques our curiosity and at 300km/h it's very hard to be sure of what you are seeing. The big incident was the David Besnard crash and fire. I got to his car as they were distinguishing the flames. I was horrifed to see the flames but pleased to see him get out of the car. Our chief engineer, Ludo Lacrois, came up with a fix to bursting fuel tanks after the fiery grid crash at Perth earlier this year. Given that we have to race in these cars for the rest of this year and the next before the Car of the Future in 2013 with much safer fuel tanks, I think the other teams should look at making Ludo's changes for safety's sake.

If only it had been one lap longer, I think I could have won. Seriously, it was as exciting a finish for me as it was for the fans watching. Some people are wondering how I could catch Garth Tander so quickly but then not be able to get past. The problem is that the rules say that on the last two laps the lead driver is allowed do whatever they can to block the chasing driver. Had I been able to get to GT a lap earlier, I might have got through, but as it turned out he did a fantastic job of holding me out and placing his car just where I didn't want it to be. At the end of the race our car still had good pace and certainly better tyre condition than GT's car. But that doesn't matter. His team did the right thing by putting themselves in the right position at the right time of the race. You really need to have track position and be in the lead of the race with 30 laps to go. Unfortunately, we were hamstrung for position by the problem with queuing in pit lane four or five times behind our teammates Jamie Whincup and Andrew Thompson. If it was once or twice we could have got away with it in a long race, but not that many times. With the way the race unfolded, every time we were in our pit window a safety car would come out and we'd be pitting behind the #88 car. We have always had that philosophy as a team that the lead car takes priority in the pits and the other car waits. My race engineer, Jeromy Moore, and chief engineer Adrian Burgess made the decision to pit my co-driver, Mark Skaife, out of sync with our teammates so we could get around the queueing problem. But as luck would have it, about 10 laps later another safety car came out and we were back to square one. I think Mark and I must have passed more cars than anyone else in the field. It definitely made it a challenging race for us. A lot of people I talked to during the race didn't back us for a win especially when we were running about eighth, but when that oil went down and I was able to get past three cars at one point that suddenly put us in contention. Then I was able to chase down Bright, Murph and set our sights on GT. Honestly I didn't think we could catch GT. He was way too far out in front. But every lap we were pulling 0.5 to 0.7 seconds out of him. Jamie was looking all day like the one to beat and at the end of the day he was understandably bitterly disappointed. Knowing that they had alternator trouble early in the race, I'd have thought the team would get on top of it, but eventually it became a terminal problem. Second was satisfying, but it doesn't taste as good as victory. Everyone wants to win at Bathurst, none more so than me. But at least I can take away the consolation prize of going from 91 points behind Jamie to 100 points in front. It's a great outcome from the weekend, but I'm not getting carried away with leading the championship. There is still a long way to go with four more rounds, 1200 points up for grabs and a number of variables that can change things such as two street circuits and international co-drivers at the Gold Coast. Last year, the big controversy at Bathurst was the delayed broadcast, so this year Seven went live and will continue to broadcast live for the rest of the season. Of course the problem is you then miss action while the ads are on. I suppose we can't have it both ways, but maybe Seven needs to have another look at it with banner ads or inset ads. I'm sure they will because Bathurst is as much their grand final as it is ours. But they need to do something quick because there are still four rounds to broadcast live this year.

Fresh from a win at Phillip Island last month, the five-time V8 Supercar and Australian Touring Car champion is a hot tip for his seventh Bathurst title this weekend. He retired from full-time touring racing in 2008 and has since been a commentator for Channel 7's broadcast, designer of race circuits, boss of the Car of the Future project and will become V8 Supercars Commission chairman from this month which means he has to give up racing for two years. We put 10 questions to Skaife on the eve of the Great Race: 1. Is this your last Bathurst? "Whilst I'm chairman of the commission I can't drive in V8 Supercars competitively, so I won't be able to do Bathurst next year. But things that I would be able to do is test some cars and still keep my hand in. It's important for me to stay current with these things. I don't want to rush to make a decision that this might be my last Bathurst because that's a pretty big thing to say. It's something I'll think very hard and very carefully about." 2. Are you able to keep up your race skills? "I've been approached to do some other racing next year which wouldn't conflict with this at all. I can't say what just yet, but there are a couple of overseas opportunities plus some local stuff. I wouldn't mind doing that so long as it's not too taxing and it wouldn't take too much of my time. Clearly as an absolutely outright professional race driver those days are gone. What I'd like to do though is pick the eyes out of the events which suit and then I'll contemplate how that works." 3. You've raced extensively in Europe in the 1990s at Le Mans, the category under F1, French touring car championship rounds and the world cup for touring cars in Monza as well as events in Asia. What races would you still like to do? "Some of the ones that still turn me on a bit are the premier ones; some of the really good quality international events like Le Mans and Nurburgring. I know Craig enjoyed the stuff he's been doing this year and under the right circumstances if it wasn't too time consuming I would like to have a look at those." 4. Would you partner with Lowndes in these events? "You never say no do you? It's a weird world, motorsport. You wouldn't have said even five years ago that Craig and I would be driving at Bathurst together. So things are always a moving target in this game." 5. Are you still competitive? "I've had more time in the car this year and I'm fitter. I've had my trainer with me for the last two-and-a-half months and we've worked rally hard. When I drove in Townsville in the co-drivers section I ended up second and at the last test day I was only a couple of 10ths of a second away from Craig. I also feel more at ease about it this year because I know the team now. I know everyone's names and Craig and I have a real camaraderie going." 6. Are you still firing on all cylinders about V8 Supercars admin? "I'm really turned on by this sport and industry and as time goes by I've done more and more of those things in the sport like TV commentary, track design (he designed Sydney and Townsville and re-designed Gold Coast) and now the commission so there are a lot of the elements of the business I really enjoy." 7. What does the V8 commission do and will it improve the sport for fans and drivers? "It deals with the regulatory side of the business, judiciary matters, rules, race formats and the nitty gritty of the sport. What people want is good, fair consistent decisions. The sport is always trying new things such as the two-race format at Ipswich which could be rolled out at other events. The format has excitement and theatre. It's essentially a bit of a rally concept in some ways with a service time in between two stages which I think has some novelty and uniqueness about it. 8. V8 Supercars has had the Australian Superbikes at several events this year. Will that continue? "I love the 4x2 concepts. Over the years Australian motorsport culture has had a lot of synergy between bikes and cars, whether it's been Wayne Gardner finishing riding bikes and coming back and driving cars or it's been the same sort of fans. I go to Phillip island for the MotoGP. I love the event and I see the same people there who attend our car races. So there's a lot of crossover between the fans of those two motorsport arenas." 9. Who is the best V8 race driver, best team, best track, best event and best race engineer? "Lowndesy is still the best all-round driver, but you would have to say Jamie Whincup is the benchmark in the sport at the moment. I've been lucky all my racing career to work with the best teams. Gibson Motor Sport was the best team in the '90s and Holden Racing Team was the best in the 2000s and it's good late in my career that I can join the best team (TeamVodafone) around now in pit lane. Bathurst is the best track, no doubt. Best event is either Clipsal (Adelaide) or Sydney. Lowndesy's race engineer, Jeromy Moore, (CORRECT!!!) is a really impressive young man. He's got a great future in this sport." 10. When will you hang up your boots finally? "If you walk down pit lane there is not an average team or average driver in any of those cars. While I'm happy that I feel more prepared this year, I don't want to linger and sort of run past a time when I feel competent and competitive. Driving is something I have been really passionate about and love. It has been my life, so stepping away from it is difficult. But things change. Things don't go on forever. You are still better off to say I might call it quits while I'm going all right. I chose to do that with my full time career and I would rather do that after winning those races with Craig last year and doing the races this year. I'm not far from making a decision on whether I actually retire from V8 SC racing per se. I've been thinking about it quite a lo t and I went and had a couple of weeks holiday and I probably still have a couple of sessions with my wife (Toni) before I decide that totally. Because if I'm not in the car and not competitive I wouldn't want to do it and couldn't physically do it at a level that would make me happy." MARK SKAIFE BIO: Born: April 3, 1967 in Gosford Racing: Started in karts in 1980s and moved to cars in 1984, joining then Australian Touring Car Championships in 1987. Retired from full-time racing in 2008. Career: 5 touring car championships; 6 Bathurst wins; 218 races; 41 round wins; 85 podium finishes; 87 race wins; 41 pole positions Awards: 2004 Medal of the Order of Australia

The defending race champions, who between them share an incredible 11 wins in The Big One of V8 Supercar racing, are the pre-race favourites again for the Bathurst 1000 after a perfect build-up in the Phillip Island 500. Lowndes and Skaife have it all - speed, experience, cool heads, fitness, a fast car and a crack crew - and are also the sentimental favourites as it could be the last time Skaife races in the Bathurst 1000. But none of their rivals is showing any sentimentality as they prepare for a race which is the closest thing in V8 Supercar racing to a football grand final. Their rivals are led by their team mates at TeamVodafone, two-time touring car champion Jamie Whincup and youngster Andrew Thompson, who are smarting after a narrow loss at Phillip Island following a touch-up between the two cars that left with a battered door and a four-second delay at their crucial driver change. But there are more than a dozen others with Lowndes/Skaife in their sights, from veteran and previous winner Russell Ingall to the hero drivers - Garth Tander, Mark Winterbottom, James Courtney, Will Davison - at the factory-backed Holden Racing Team and Ford Performance Racing. And then there are the speedy outsiders, led by Shane van Gisbergen in a Stone Brothers Commodore and Lee Holdsworth, having his last Bathurst run in a Commodore with Garry Rogers. Here's how Carsguide rates them 1-1: Craig Lowndes/Mark Skaife, Commodore: More than just sentimental favourites, with everything it takes to repeat their 2010 win. 5-2: Jamie Whincup/Andrew Thompson, Commodore: Their only weakness is Thompson's pace on a wet track, and it often rains at Bathurst. Whincup is desperate to win for the first time without Lowndes. 2-1: Mark Winterbottom/Steven Richards, Falcon: Frosty has the one-lap pace and Richards is a two-time winner, but FPR continually finds new ways to lose the big races. 2-1: James Courtney/Cameron McConville, Commodore: Both drivers have been solid at Bathurst, but HRT has been dismal this year and they will need a major form reversal to win on speed. 2-1: Garth Tander/Nick Percat, Commodore: Potentially the strongest threat to the TeamVodafone cars, but Percat is unproven at Bathurst despite his stunning speed at Phillip Island. 5-1: Shane van Gisbergen/John McIntyre, Falcon: The Giz is emerging as a star driver and has pace to burn, but that is unlikely to help if he goes too hard or too early at Bathurst. A bit of luck could get him home. 8-1: Will Davison/Luke Youlden, Falcon: The second FPR Falcon was strong at Phillip Island, but Davison crashed heavily at Bathurst last year and needs to re-invent himself to conquer the mountain this time. 10-1: Jason Bright/Andrew Jones, Commodore: Bright has won races this year and the Brad Jones team knows how to run at the front at Bathurst, but it will still be a tough job for them to challenge the favourites. 10-1: Lee Holdsworth/Greg Ritter, Commodore: Holdsworth did a lot of leading in 2010 and Ritter has been solid in the past as a co-driver. Only outsider, but could make the podium.

...Veteran driver Mark Skaife has admitted. "It made sense to involve Ford and Holden back when it started as they had 45 per cent of the market, but now it's around 20 per cent which is not our fault they have lost market share but just the way the car industry has gone," he says. "Our regulations are in their 19th year of compliance so for almost 20 years we put up a big fence around V8 supercar racing and have looked after Ford and Holden," he says. "It's been `Aus Incorporated'. We would be derelict in our duty to not chase other manufacturers." The six-time Bathurst winner and the man responsible for the Car of the Future (COTF) project to build new and cheaper race cars for the 2013 season says other manufacturers are poised to enter the series. But probably not as race cars just yet. "Car of the Future has opened the garage door and looked at engaging other car companies in the business, not just as race cars but as medical cars, pace cars, marshals' cars, suppliers of parts," he says. Skaife is not disappointed that no car company has yet declared an interest in competing except for BMW which wanted to bring in its race car from the German touring car series; a prospect that is not possible under the COTF guidelines. He believes manufacturers will eventually see good reason to join the series. "We deliver ants to venues and a lot of passionate people and millions of eyeballs on TV screens. We make great sense for a manufacturer to engage with us," he said. "They spend millions of dollars on footy but they can spend a lot less in our sport and it makes more sense to their business as there is more of a synergy." Skaife says they have had "fruitful discussions" with car companies and were working hard to have one or two new manufacturers in the sport, but he wouldn't give a time frame. "The growth of our sport with new media rights and international exposure through offshore events makes it even more attractive for car importers," he says. He points out that the recent Philippines government announcement that they are keen on a V8 round in 2013 is a good example of the expansion of the business in an appropriate time zone for Australian TV viewers. However, V8 Supercars has also expanded into the Mid East and will race in Austin, Texas, in 2013, both of which are considered inappropriate time zones for Australian TV audiences. "We are dedicated to providing the best touring sedan car racing in this region," Skaife says. "Our hands are up to look at all possibilities including India."

Five-time Bathurst 1000 champion Craig Lowndes broke Greg Murphy's seven-year strangelhold on the lap record last year when he set a blistering 1:6.8012mins (previously 1:6.8594) around the Bathurst track in practice session five before qualifying on the Friday. His race engineer, Jeromy Moore, says it was the perfect lap ... almost. "He actually lost a bit of time in The Cutting compared with the lap before," he says. "He focused too much on exit speed rather than holding mid-corner speed." So if Murf's lap was known as the Lap of the Gods, what's Lowndesy's lap called? "We haven't got a name for it. What's better than the Lap of the Gods? I suppose it's the Almost Perfect Lap." Moore is quick to point out that Murf's record was achieved just after the track was resurfaced and before V8 Supercars brought in minimum component weights on crankshafts, conrods and pistons, and introduced the control cam profile which reduces valve lift. Moore says no one in pit lane was expecting the lap record to be broken in that session. "It was quite strange because it was only a practice session, so we weren't really prepared for it," he says. "It wasn't like the whole pit lane was watching. "As soon as we crossed the line we saw the number and on the timing screen they have the current lap record and then that changed. It's all on You Tube. You can see we all punched the air. "I don't usually get too excited, but I was pretty happy. RD (team principal Roland Dane) was pretty stoked because he had been wanting to smash that record for a few years. It was something he wanted to rectify." The highlights of the lap for Moore were the last few corners where Lowndes pushed hard. "Braking after the Chase where he hits 100 per cent braking was pretty special," he says. "Everywhere else it wasn't hair-raising; it was just smooth. "The steering traces show if he is sliding the rear and you may see it on the revs as a secondary thing, but our data showed there were not many corrections all the way round. It was just real smooth. It wasn't until that last sector when he pulled it out of the bag that we all started to get excited." Moore says Lowndes knows the track better than most other drivers and excels on the downhill run. "Generally he's gone well down the hill from Skyline," he says."He knows exactly where to place the car and put each wheel. He carries quite a bit of speed down there and that's where you need to have the most commitment. "The corners down the hill are linked - each corner sets the other one up after it - so if you're carrying too much speed at Skyline you'll be in the wall." The 888 car was set up for qualifying with a green set of tyres. However, the crew were expecting to do more laps when the chequered flag ended the session, so the car wasn't running low on fuel. "We weren't really going for it, so we still had about 20kg of fuel on board. We'd planned to do more runs but got the chequered flag." However, the conditions were perfect for a quick lap, Moore says. "Everything just fell together at that time with the air and track temperature at 18C and 32C," he says. "Ideally you want the air temp as cold as possible and the track no more than about 32C." So, could Lowndes break his own record this year? "Judging by his comments after the lap, he was happy with the set-up and he drove it pretty well, so driving wise there is no improvement to be made, but maybe a bit of tweaking on the car set-up could see us go faster," he says.

Based on bang-for-buck impact, as well as classic muscle appeal, Shannons Insurance says it has to be the Falcon XY GTHO Phase 3 that ruled at Bathurst in the 1970s and was the world's fastest four-door sedan at the time it was introduced. A silver HO was passed in at the Brisbane Motor Show auction in 2008 at about $750,000."You wouldn't get those prices now as the bubble burst on the Aussie V8 muscle car market over 12 months ago and we haven't seen those numbers back ... yet," says Shannons spokesman Phil Ross.But Dan Bowden, whose Sunshine Coast family museum has one of the greatest collections of Aussie muscle cars, reckons the top prize goes to the Falcon XR GT which he calls "The first of the real Aussie V8s". It won Bathurst in 1967.Bathurst victory seems to be the common thread here. But what about Holdens? Ross says the number two and three cars in the price stakes are both Bathurst-winning Holdens: the 1978/79 A9X hatchback 308 V8 LX SS and the 1968 327 V8 HK Holden Monaro, "or possibly the 1970 HT 350 V8 Monaro"."Shannons Auctions sold a HK 327 Monaro for $220,000 at one of our auctions at the height of the muscle car price wars," he says.Earlier this year an A9X was passed in at a Shannons auction in Melbourne for more than $270,000. "They only made 100 of these so the Holden fans will argue it's the number one Aussie V8 of all time and the most collectable," says Ross.Road cars are one thing, but race cars attract even higher price tags. Bowden's museum has Peter Brock's 1979 A9X in which he won Bathurst by six laps, setting a record on the last lap while waving at the fans.It's insured for over $1m. Bowden says the car recently won an Auto Action poll as the most significant race car in Australia's history and won a Facebook poll among Bowden followers.Despite all that, he says the HK 327 GTS Monaro is "one of the most beautiful and a real contender", winning Bathurst in 1968.Ross says the cars that conquered Bathurst were awarded hero status by the car-buying public. "I don't think this kind of hero status for Aussie V8s will be as big with the later model cars but time may prove me wrong," he says. "I have just noticed there is a bit of a cult following starting with younger guys and the humble XD Falcon at shows."I always thought it looked more like a taxi but after looking at the Dick Johnson `Tru Blu' Falcon Group C race car at Bowden's museum I have changed my mind."Neither Ross nor Bowden mentioned any Chrysler product. "Sadly Chrysler didn't have any good V8s," says Bowden. "The ones with any real sporting pedigree were the six-cylinder versions."In the end they built the V8s in the Charger, the VJ E55 versions, but they were very toned down, marketed against the big luxury Ford Fairmont and LS Monaros, not as a sporting car."Ross says the six-cylinder E49 E49 RT Charger in the popular Vitamin C (orange) six pack "Big Tank" (extra Fuel for Bathurst) fully restored can be worth $170,000-$200.000."I once asked Leo Geogeghan if he thought a Charger could win Bathurst and he said not without a V8," he says. "He couldn't beat the V8 GT Falcons up the mountain. There was a 770 Charger released with a V8 but it never ran at Bathurst. If they had won maybe they would be worth more."Of the current batch of Aussie V8s, Bowden likes the FPV GT. "Amazing engine. The only manufacturer that hand assembles its engine in Australia," he says.Bowden also throws a monkey into the works with the rear-mounted HSV V8 engine in the Alfa Romeo Sprint made by Giocattolo Motori Pty Ltd. The Australian car company built just 15 cars from 1986 to 1989 which were capable of up to 260km/h.OTHERS TO CONSIDER* Falcon XA GTHO Phase IV, the one Ford said they never built, killed by the super car scare and only one road car ever made.* Holden L34 Torana, with Hi-Po option, our only all-Aussie-made engine.* VL HDT Group A Brock Commodore, another homologation special. "The polariser plus pack version just adds to the story," says Bowden.* Falcon XA RPO-83 option GT. A lot of those Phase IV bits went on these special cars.* Falcon XC Cobra, one of the first 30, the Bathurst special versions.

Married with a daughter (who is also a Ford fan), Mr Watson currently has an FPV GT 335 sedan, the latest in a long line of Ford products."We have had around 20 Fords - various models, not just Falcons - after some Holdens. We have had many Fords, one has followed the other ever since and we have no plans to change camps," he says.Mr Watson looks at the red versus blue rivalry as something that is now generational. "When it started it was Moffat versus Brock and has grown since then to have people either red or blue, now we're talking second and third generation fans as children follow their parents," he says.The family has had an FPV GT since April - the supercharged 335kW version - and now wouldn't have anything else. "I absolutely love it, the supercharged V8 has plenty of power - we use it for normal road work, not track days, we don't push it that hard, but it has plenty of poke for overtaking," he says."We're also restoring an old XB Falcon - a full bare-metal restoration - with 393 stroker V8, that will sit proudly next to the new GT," he says.A big shed and a tolerant wife are two key ingredients to Daryl Leaker's impressive stable of Holden product. The 1998 HSV Senator Signature 220i shares garage space with a number of Holden, HSV and HDT machines."I've got a very big shed for them all, I've always liked Holdens because my father was a Holden salesman so it is in the blood I guess," he says.Mr Leaker hasn't always just owned Holdens - a Mitsubishi Pajero replaced a Ford Territory recently, but there balance of power has always been to the General, harking back to his formative years with a Holden salesman for a father."It was great when Dad was selling Holdens, I got to drive GTR XU-1s and 327 Monaros when they were brand new," he says. "When I turned 21 I bought myself an HQ GTS coupe and got some discount through my father, I wish I still had that car as well."The HSV shares shed space with a VN SS Group A and an HSV Statesman, as well as a HDT VK Brock Commodore SS in silver and an HJ Monaro four-door."I'll always be a Holden fan - I think I'd die of shock if the missus came home in an FPV GT," he says.

Everyone watched the AFL and NRL grand finals last weekend and now it's our grand final this weekend, come rain or shine. Grand finals are played in all sorts of weather and both sides have to play in the same conditions, so it really doesn't worry me if it's cold and wet at Mt Panorama as predicted. We all race the same track. In fact, one advantage is that while I was away at the Australasian Safari last week in Western Australia, my co-driver, Mark Skaife, had a full day of testing at Queensland Raceway with some wet conditions. That not only gave him seat time on wet tyres, but also gave the team the opportunity to tweak the car settings for those conditions. Of course, that's Queensland Raceway which is a different animal to Mt Panorama. This track is daunting in the dry but to drive around here in the wet is extremely - let's say - exciting. It's a dangerous track in the dry with speeds on Conrod Straight around 300km/h and when it rains drivers don't tend to back off too much so it definitely catches your attention. The main thing is to drive smoothly and make all the usual adjustments in the car for wet conditions, such as brake bias and suspension. You are mainly looking for grip on the track surface, constantly searching the road for that area that will give you a bit of extra traction. I'm actually quite looking forward to a bit of precipitation. The other day I saw some old footage of the 2008 race where we had some great battles in the closing stages of the race on a wet pitch. Thinking back on that, it was quite exciting. If it rains again, we'll just take it in our stride, look after the car and try to keep out of other people's crashes. Perhaps the biggest threat in the rain would be young Shane van Gisbergen. He's been knocking on the back door a lot lately and if it rains, he'll no doubt be knocking louder and harder because he's a talented wet track driver. Admittedly he's only one half of a team, but his co-driver is fellow Kiwi John McIntyre so he should be ok as well. They all seem to have webbed feet over there. Another good thing about the wet weather for me is that my lap record which I set in the last practice session on Friday might stand a little longer. I hope so, anyway. I would love it to stand for a bit longer than just 12 months, but if the weather and track conditions are right, the cars are very quick this year and the record could be in danger. Following up on our one-two team win last year is going to be difficult, but not unattainable since we did it at Phillip Island last month. I haven't spoken to team principal Roland Dane about it, but if we get to that situation at the end of the race there are no team orders. We'll definitely be racing. Every race we go in RD wants us to race to the chequered flag and have the best man win. If we can finish one-two it would be unbelievable to do it two years in a row. Skaifey and I are favourites at $2.75 on Sportsbet and our teammates Jamie Whincup and Andrew Thompson are second at $4.75 with Garth Tander and Nick Percat third on $8. But I won't be placing any bets. It's a long race and there are a lot of teams with good chances this year. The biggest team threats are FPR, HRT, SBR and Garry Rogers, while the dark horse drivers are Russell Ingall, Greg Murphy and Jason Bright who are all veterans and as we know at Bathurst, experience counts. The Safari last week is almost a distant memory. It was a shame we crashed and got a 10-hour penalty for not finishing two stages as we were the fastest in every stage we completed. It certainly hasn't dimmed my view of the event. In fact, I'd jump at the chance to compete again next year and after talking to three-time Dakar Rally winner Cyril Despres at the Safari last week I'd love to do a Dakar.

FIRST thing everyone wanted to know after I rolled the Colorado on its side in the Australasian Safari was whether I would be ok for Bathurst next week. Thanks for your concern, but my navigator (John Panozzo) and I are fine. It was a gentle roll at slow speed. Disappointing for my Safari bid as I was well in front, but we weren't at all hurt. Our pride was dinted and so was the car. With some luck I can salvage a podium by the finish on Friday night depending on the time penalty we are given. There are many similarities between the Bathurst 1000 and the Australasian Safari. Both are endurance events where you have to be patient, resist the urge to race too early and hope the attrition rate happens to others. Even the wildlife is the same, although there is a lot more of it over here in Western Australia this year. Many will recall the run-in I had with a kangaroo at Bathurst a few years back and the safety car period we had at Phillip Island a couple of weekends ago when wild geese crossed the track. Thankfully, the kangaroo problem at Bathurst has been eased in recent years with the employment of special roo-shooers to clear the track. The main difference between Bathurst and the Safari is that you don't get lost or take a wrong turn at Mt Panorama. We've got ourselves lost and taken wrong turns quite a few times in the Safari, but nothing major. Despite the roll, I'm really enjoying myself, enjoying the endurance and hoping to one day head over to South America to do the Dakar Rally like my mentor, Peter Brock, had been planning to do in a specially modified Holden Adventra. This Safari has also been a good opportunity for me to concentrate on something other than Bathurst which is my key focus of the whole year. Even so, I can't help thinking about it, especially with the team having its test day at Queensland Raceway yesterday. With me not there, it has given my co-driver, Mark Skaife, plenty of valuable seat time just a week out from the big event. Meanwhile, my teammate, Jamie Whincup, and his co-driver, Andrew Thompson, also made last-minute adjustments for Bathurst. Jamie is very happy with his co-driver who did such a fantastic job at Phillip Island. All year Andrew's been groomed for this part of the year and he delivered. In fact, his start was so good, the stewards looked into it to see if he'd jumped the start but found he just had the best reactions of the entire field. With such rapid responses to the starting lights, he should be a drag racer. Another young gun who performed well at the last round was Garth Tander's co-driver Nick Percat. Even though he stalled at the start line and had to go to the back of the field, he settled in and clawed his way back. I can understand their frustration at being sent to the back of the field when the car proved unable to start on its own. After the massive fire in the starting grid crash at Darwin involving Steve Owen and Karl Reindler, the officials are mindful of the problem of stalling on the grid. The main focus is a safe start and having a car on the front row with a major problem was a recipe for disaster. What the stewards did was perfect and it's in the rules. I'm sure he was fuming in his helmet but Nick drove a very mature race and got them right back into the mix. I wouldn't discount them to be a major force at next week's event.