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.
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Hey Jason,
Great blog man! really enjoy reading about your adventures on the circuit. Keep up the good work and best of luck for the next race.
Cheers,
Justin
Hey Jase,
Bad luck at barbagallo, the toll hsv and hrt cars looked hard to beat.Hopefully NZ will work out better for both you and murph. Love the updates keep up the good work!
best wishes nic.
Hey Jase, talk to me, anywhere close to my place where I am living? Anywhere in Reservoir or Preston or somewhere close by?
Good work at Barbagallo and keep it up!
hey jase,
great blog. can’t believe you guys got drug tested…… mind you saying that, you were in WA and with all thats being going on with the West Coast Eagles, you just never know.
good luck with moving on wednesday and thursday soooo much fun!!. i just did it and i can honestly say, never ever again…..
best of luck in NZ, heres hoping you have the same luck in your home ground as Garth did in his.
cheers Bron
Hey Jas
I have just found out about your Blog. Its really good, I have just sat here at work (oops dont tell the boss) and read through all the entries and watched the video’s and looked at the pic’s. Its awesome!
Firstly congratulations on the wedding….its about time if you two have been engaged for 6 years! The pictures look great!
Clipsal this year was exciting, you didnt get the best results but it was still a point scoring event and as you mentioned the new scoring system rewards consistency rather than race wins. The brake problem is a bit of a worry especially if its a mystery to you….hopefully that will sort itself out. I want to thank you for a great time at Clipsal to, you and Murph always make the supporters feel good and you spend the time to chat to us and have pictures with us, its really nice. Some of the teams are no were near as friendly. So thank you, Murph and the Tasman Team, it made my weekend great. (PS On the Tasman Website, under Clipsal Fan Shots I am the one with you and that crazy guy behind us….do you remember that nutta, he just came up and stood in the photo….weirdo)
Barrbagallo doesn’t sound like it was a good weekend. I was unable to watch the races on 7 but have them on Video to watch when I get a chance. The understeer problem is that related to the braking issue you had a Clipsal? The Tasman website mentions that you will be doing some testing before Pukekohe, hopefully that will be a successful testing session with positive results.
Best of luck for Round 3 - I bet Pukekohe will have great results for both you and Murph.
Take Care, Kate
Hello Jason.Nice blog!Love the posts.So you haved moved houses,have you?Tell me about it!!!
Blog here: jackstar.bigblog.com.au