Pukekohe was one wild weekend for me. It looked like it was going to be my best weekend of the season by far, until the front left of the car collapsed due to a part of my suspension breaking.

It was bloody frightening, and I am well and truly over having a thrill in a V8 Supercar. I was doing 225kph at the time and probably lost 50% of my braking power. Scary!

We had the same thing happen in Bahrain last year, when I made some slight contact. We have been monitoring the situation, but the broken part is going to come under a lot of scrutiny as we try and figure out why it broke.

I was the leading Kiwi for the better part of the second race, which was an awesome feeling, as it was the last time at Puke. The crowd support was fantastic.

To have thousands of people cheering for you, and know the whole crowd are cheering for you, because you’re a Kiwi was really special.

It wasn’t the standard Ford versus Holden cheering. It was awesome, and not a feeling you get in Australia.

We were still a little down on the pace of the first few cars, which was disappointing, but we just have to keep on trying to improve the package that we have.

I met the Mayor of Hamilton during the week, and saw the street circuit, where the NZ round will now be held.

It looks impressive, it’s not all concrete walls, but rather goes through parklands, skyscrapers and past railway tracks, which will make it an interesting and picturesque circuit to drive.

Off the track I actually got to sample the pie that Cobb and Co Restaurants have named after me. The JR pie really does taste great. It has mushrooms, bacon, beef and Speight’s Old Ale in it, as well as thick gravy.

I got the superstar treatment from Cobb and Co. They flew the pie to me from Christchurch. There are no Cobb and Co’s in Auckland. Nice work from them!

Murph and I went to see a Leukemia patient yesterday. He was a massive V8 fan, so it was good to brighten up his day.

He is my age; we were only born 13 days apart which makes you think how lucky you are! He is recovering, which is great, but it also reminded me why the Leukemia Foundation is such a worthwhile cause.

I will be co-hosting the Panelbeaters web show tonight with Brad Jones, as Neil Crompton is out of action, and am looking forward to it. We will be talking about all the action at Pukekohe. It’s live from 7pm so check it out at http://www.v8supercar.com.au/content/panelbeaters/.

I’m looking forward to getting back to the house this week and relaxing a bit. Hopefully my pool is now the right colour. I’ll find out tomorrow.

Take care – Jase.

Running well 5-7 in 2nd race until sus failure at 275k. Very scary.R3 started 26 finished up 18 race cut short for tv due to large crash.14th in round 16 champ

13th at puke in prac. Had crash due to mud on track but only cosmetic dam. Under steering on fast corner’s need better drive on slow ones. 0.4 to find.

The Bathurst weekend was a fun way to spend Easter. While we didn’t win the class we all enjoyed racing as a team and produced a good result.
 
As it turned out we were entered in the wrong class. We were supposed to have a VXR HSV Astra but were driving a Standard Astra Turbo, so [...]