The practice session was delayed for some time on Saturday due to the rain. Eastern Creek is a fairly dangerous track in the wet, a bit like Phillip Island as some of the corners have a bit of camber on them which causes the water to flow over the track like a river. If you drive through the bad ones it's extremely easy to end up off the track.
The track was still wet at the start of practice but thankfully the rivers flowing across had lessened. It is a real challenge in a session like that to learn much about engineering the car. We made some changes to try and improve the car in the wet but the forecast was predicting it would be dry for qualifying.
At the end of the session I think we only managed 6 laps on slick tyres.
We knew we had to be on the ball in the 3 qualifying sessions and tune the car on the run if we wanted to make the top ten. At the same time with only 3 sets of new tyres to use we had to do a good enough time in the middle session to put us well into the top ten with one new set of tyres left.
We made changes to the car every time I came into pit lane and we managed to improve the car bit by bit. We put our new set of tyres on and went out at the very start of the final 15 minute session and did a time. After 2 laps on a new set of tyres it is almost impossible to better your time which is why I came in and got out of the car with around 6 minutes to go. This was by far the worse and longest 6 minutes of the weekend watching the screen to see if any one was able to beat my time!
Race one was always going to be difficult. Starting from pole position, I was on the inside of the straight for the start which is generally dirtier than the outside which is the actual racing line.
My initial jump off the line was ok but shortly after I broke into wheel spin and lost momentum and as a result lost a few places.
To make matters worse, I made a mistake on the first lap and over steered off line and ran over a kerb. This bent both left hand side wheels as well as the left hand steering arm. As I was out of control over the kerb I also allowed my brother Rick to sneak up the inside coming onto the straight. I was concerned and half expecting the left front tyre to deflate in the following laps due to the impact with the kerb.
As I followed Rick for the next lap a huge amount of smoke was pouring out of the right rear corner of his car which made it difficult for me to see. On top of this a constant spray of oil was coming out of his car onto my windscreen making my viability even worse.
With that and my steering problems it was going to be a long race.
To end up in 4th position at the end of race 1 was disappointing but in the scheme of things it could have been a lot worse.
Race 2 didn't turn out to be all the much better. I had another average start and was really struggling with the car. The balance wasn't good at all and at a track like Eastern Creek if you don't have a good car you burn your tyres up really easily and the loss of grip and speed and tends to snow ball.
I finished race 2 in 5th position and at that point from starting the weekend on pole I was starting to get frustrated.
We worked really hard on the car and made some fairly big changes for the last race to try and get back up there.
The opening laps of the race were fairly uneventful. I just looked after the tyres and drove as smoothly as possible without fighting for a position with anyone.
Matty and the crew decided to pit me on the first lap of the pit window. This was my chance to try and make up positions. I came into pit land as hard as I possibly could and the boys made a great pit stop.
The out lap with new, cold tyres is crucial to gain track position. I pushed as hard as I possibly could over the next few laps as all of the cars in front had not yet made there pit stops.
Every lap, every corner, every single inch of the track I got the most out of the car that I could.
As I came onto the straight on the next lap I could see one of the Toll HSV cars in the pits along with Skaifey. I wasn't sure how it was going to pan out because at that point they were both exiting the pits about 600 meters ahead.
With the pace we had over the last few laps I knew that I had to of made up some ground but I didn't know how much. It was going to be close. Mark was accelerating fast out of pit lane as I was coming into turn 1. As it turned out I was in front of him going into turn 2.
With Mark being on cold tyres I was able to pull away over the next few corners and gave myself some breathing space.
It wasn't over yet as there were still others to pit.
The car was much better than the first 2 races and I was able to do some fairly good lap times at that point.
I came onto the straight and saw Lowndes exiting pit lane - I knew it was going to be close again.
It turned out exactly the same as with Mark and I watched him drive out of pit lane as I came down the straight. Pushing the throttle pedal harder and harder into the stop, not that it makes any difference!
I came through the turn and got in front of Craig which now meant we were in the lead. That didn't mean we were all set for the rest of the race.
Craig was right behind me on fresh tyres and I was at that point almost starting to struggle with mine after pushing so hard to get track position.
The remainder of the race was tough as Craig as times was only the thickness of a cigarette paper from my rear and pushing hard to get past.
In the end, I managed to stay in front and take out Race 3 which put me into 2nd overall for the round.
The last race turned out to be great fun and hats off to Craig for driving so clean given that he had better pace than I did at the end.
Overall it was a good weekend for the team and a great one for Mark also getting the round win and now being the most successful V8 driver in the history of the sport.
I am now back into 3rd place in the championship and looking forward to clawing my way back up over the coming rounds.
All the best,
