It certainly wasn’t a great weekend at Barbagallo. On Friday I had a massive 150km/h crash with Jason Bright which almost destroyed both our cars. It put him out for the weekend and the Tasman team were up until 3am Saturday morning fixing my car.

I thought it was a good performance to qualify 12th after that. The main problem of the weekend was that we just didn’t have the same pace that the Toll HSV and HRT teams did.

The whole field was having understeer problems due to the circuit losing even more grip this year. The faster cars benefited from this as it meant their understeer was more manageable.

The first and second races were ok but I struggled because of poor pit stops. I think I lost 5 positions during my stop in the second race, which is obviously not good. The third race was by far the worst of the weekend for me. I struggled with a long brake pedal the whole race and had oversteer coming out of the corners. That doesn’t make for impressive lap times!

Rick Kelly and Garth Tander have really cleared out in front and have left the rest of the championship in their wake early on. I really wish I had have been able to get a good start to the season but it’s something that has eluded me again this year.  It’s important to get a good start but with the new points structure all you really need is a few good races back to back and you can be right back in the mix.

For Murph and I, and our Tasman Motorsport team, the next round at Pukekohe in New Zealand is our ‘home’ race. Murph’s been hugely successful there, winning several times, and I’d love to be able to do the same and win my home round. It would also be a great way to kick-start my championship campaign.

Matt Giteau was a special guest of the team on the weekend, we share a sponsor (Firepower) with the Western Force, so they set that up. I found Matt to be a thoroughly nice guy who really respected what we do.

Matt went for a hot lap with Murph. Apparently he looked like he was going to be sick for the first 50-100 metres but he held on like a champ and got out with the adrenalin pumping..

I was also drug tested this week, which was a bit of a novelty. No one really remembers drug testing occurring for around 7 years in V8s! They rounded up 6 or 7 of us and I have to say being nearly naked and made to go to the bathroom in front of another guy was not the best experience I have ever had!

This week will be busy for me. Char and I are moving house on Wednesday and Thursday, while at work we will have a debrief on Tuesday to discuss how to improve the cars. Mine will be in the shop getting straightened out first!

I have a new video up on the blog showing the driver’s cockpit and its features, so check that out after you read this.

Until next time, take care – Jason.

Ended up 12th in qual. Bad start, then a long brake pedal. Plus got shuffled back in an pass. Finished up 15th just in the points.Still room for improvement.

Only lasted 8laps today.Bright lost an engine in front of me turned into my path having a 100k impact bad damage.Car will be fixed for tomorrow.Handling average

The Australian Grand Prix has come and gone and I thoroughly enjoyed myself over the week. The MMS post from the McLaren pits was taken on Wednesday when I took the opportunity to hang out with Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso.
 
It was good to meet the guys when they were relaxed rather than in race [...]