After Eastern Creek Greg Murphy and I went to New Zealand for a few days. We did drive days with one of the Holden dealers with HSVs with the HSV Owners event on Thursday on Friday. Then on Saturday we headed up to Hamilton to do the National Fields Day on the Holden stand which was a bit of fun. We ended up driving a ginormous digger. We had a bit of a challenge where we had to pick up an egg and put it in a cup with this enormous digger. It was part of their National championship for New Zealand’s best digger driver. It was a bit of a challenge, because you can imagine the size of the bucket, probably a good five foot long and the teeth on the bucket were the size of a hand so you’ve got to pick the egg up with the teeth without breaking it and then drop if off in a cup. It’s so delicate you’ve got to use all the controls at once. You’ve got two joysticks and you have to use them simultaneously. But we did it. I don’t think we did it in record time though. I think I got the egg in the cup first, but Greg got back to the finish line first.

While we’re on New Zealand, it’s big news for Tasman Motorsport as we’ve just established an Auckland office and appointed ex-Team Kiwi racer Andy Booth as our General Manager over there. Even though we’re majority New Zealand owned, we just haven’t had a man on the ground over there and with Boothy it gives us the opportunity to really have someone flying the Tasman flag. From the commercial point of view, through to the fans, through to the Holden dealers, it’s a point of contact which gives us a better presence in New Zealand which is obviously an important market for us.

I flew up to Darwin on Wednesday and it’s nice up here, compared to Melbourne. Although apparently they had their coldest day on record yesterday – 23 degrees! Perfect V8 Supercar weather actually, not ridiculously hot like it normally is. We’re usually really suffering up here, so it’s quite nice to be in a warm environment.

At home I’ve had my heaters going and it was in the news, in Melbourne we used the most electricity ever, breaking a record or something, because the place is so cold and everybody’s trying to warm the joint up. I was quietly looking forward to Darwin to be honest, just to thaw out a bit.

Another reason that I’m looking forward to Darwin is that it’s been a fairly good track for us in the past, so we’re definitely going into this weekend with a bit of confidence. You don’t know what the outcome’s going to be, but traditionally our speed’s been pretty good here. Even though there is a big long straight and horsepower is a factor, there’s also a fair bit of twisty stuff over the back so a good chassis is just as important. Last year we didn’t have the engine speed, but we were able to pass all the good guys to lead the final race. This year we’ve definitely got stronger engines but the field continues to improve in those areas as well.

I also got to drive the latest Abrams tank at the Army barracks up here. I’ve sent through an MMS of it and I’ll tell you all about that, plus the rest of the Darwin weekend next week.

Just wanted to answer a couple of questions from you guys. Ness, I don’t think I have the file of that anymore unfortunately. Michael, nobody other than Mark Noske has been confirmed by the team yet for Sandown & Bathurst.

Finally, we’ve confirmed the dates for our Open Day. It will be on Saturday & Sunday August 4 & 5 at the Tasman Motorsport facility, 98 Bell Street Preston. Hope to see all the Tasman Motorsport fans there.

Jase